Model of a mitochondrial membrane set in its molecular environment at the level of public understanding

Models of molecules magnified to two million diameters and set out in themes
representing processes basic to life have the purpose of introducing molecular biology and
biochemistry to the educated layman, to upper school students and university
undergraduates. The poster showed a model which combines the themes of glycolysis,
Krebs Cycle, electron transport chain and ATP regeneration working together to extract
and use electrical energy from glucose.
The poster also directed delegates to the model of the bacterium Escherichia coli at
the same magnification, set up at the Meeting, whose cutaway section demonstrated
some of the many molecular pathways and structures which make up the existence and
life processes in E.coli. This model at 4.6m long and 1.8m high has been constantly
updated since it was made for the Millennium when it was accepted by Guinness World
Records as the world’s largest model bacterium.

This E.coli model has formed the centrepiece of the author’s annual exhibition of
molecular biology in Cambridge from 2008 to 2011 in March under the auspices of the
British Science Association and Cambridge University Science Festivals. The poster model
and several similar models showing other biochemical themes were exhibited at these
festivals and my exhibition could readily become the basis of a permanent exhibition of
molecular biology. It includes a PC for access to the internet and is subject to
development and expansion in many directions, e.g. at lower magnifications for context
models and higher magnifications for detail of many of its parts, notably the complex
proteins which make up molecular machines.

No relevant conflicts of interest declared.