For those who don't know, John Yates is one of the most important mass spec (or "proteomics") guys out there (i.e. applying mass spectrometry to identify what protein you are analyzing). He developed tandem mass spec and is at the forefront of new technologies in this area. Yesterday he was in the Longwood area where he gave a seminar on the latest stuff coming out of his lab. The talk was OK, it would have been better if I was a mass spec guy as much of the talk was focused on the technology and how it has been used to probe biology ... rather than the biology itself. But I'd like to share with you an amusing little intro slide. One of the main goals in biology, is to figure out the molecular mechanisms that contribute to various cellular processes. But how to get at the molecules (i.e. proteins)?
John Yates had a whimsical list of approaches (the first three were attributed to a certain professor Pollard, but we're quite sure it wasn't Tom Pollard of Yale):
The Casablanca approach: round up the usual suspects - make an educated guess.
The Lampost approach: look where the light is brightest - do the easiest search, like spot your RNA transcripts on an Affymetrix chip.
The Department of Transportation approach: search everyone - analogous to mass spec.
Magical inductionalism: do enough random experiments and maybe the answer will appear.