- From: Phillip Lord <phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk>
- Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:45:09 +0000
- To: Pat Hayes <phayes@ihmc.us>
- Cc: Oliver Ruebenacker <curoli@gmail.com>, Mark Wilkinson <markw@illuminae.com>, W3C HCLSIG hcls <public-semweb-lifesci@w3.org>
Pat Hayes <phayes@ihmc.us> writes: >> Besides which, the issue being discussed here is one of equality. When >> are two proteins the same protein? > > TWO proteins are never the same protein. Two mangelwurzels are never the same > mangelwurzel, either. What 'same' means, is that there is ONE thing with two > names. Being the same as is never a relationship between two different > things. This is obvious; the question is about types of proteins. A statement like: "every protein molecule in the world is different from every other protein molecule" is true, but more or less totally useless. We are talking about proteins not protein molecules; if I give you a solution of protein molecules, all the same, and you split it into two halves, do you now suddenly have two proteins? Protein is a mass term. You would agree that two glasses of water both hold the same substance; just so for protein. The question is, then, when are two samples of protein, samples of the same protein. A secondary question is, how do we represent this computationally. We are going around in circles here; I think that I have said enough. Phil
Received on Thursday, 26 March 2009 15:46:06 UTC