What is Spiegelman's monster? (It's to do with BACTERIOPHAGES)

Sol Spiegelman researched bacteriophages and created the exciting world of in vitro evolution studies. The bacteriophage genome Spiegelman experimented with transformed dramatically in his experiments and lost many of the capabilities of the wild type bacteriophage. But it also gained something spectacular: replication speed! 

Since the YouTube algorithm really likes comments on videos, consider commenting. It can be something stupid or lame. I'm excited to read all the comments anyways :) 

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Resources 
The original article describing the self-replicating RNA, that was transferred from one test tube to another (Spiegelman's monster)

The article where Sol Spiegelman and Leslie Orgel and colleagues experimented with ethidium bromide containing growth solutions. This study mentioned the exact starting and ending lengths of the RNA in the original experiment by Spiegelman, which the original article does not tell. 

While researching, I stumbled into varying lengths for the starting length of the RNA genome and the final length of the Spiegelman's monster. Reports about a shorter Spiegelman's monster seem to stem from this study, published five years after the original by Spiegelman and colleagues. It describes a Spiegelman's monster with a length of 218 nucleotides. 
 
The study by Frank Oehlenschläger and Manfred Eigen, in which the Spiegelman's monster reached the minuscule size of around 50 nucleotides. The study also elaborated on the original experimental setup: Spiegelman selected for fast growth by transferring within the exponential growth period. It would be interesting to know how the experiment would differ had fast growth not been selected for by transferring within the exponential growth period and instead the experiment had reached an equilibrium before transfer. Would the monster still have been born? I would think so since the shorter strands still out populate the longer strands. 

An NIH Profiles in Science page on Sol Spiegelman and his research. The link is to the part of Sol's career where he discovered the Spiegelman's monster. The other pages are enjoyable too!

Books discussing the Spiegelman's monster (I don't get a commission for mentioning these books or linking to them)

Another book I delved into while doing background research was "What is Life?: How Chemistry Becomes Biology" by Addy Pross. The book discusses what chemical reactions are critical for life to form. Again, I didn't dive too deep into other parts of the book, besides chapter 4, Stability and Instability, discussing the Spiegelman's monster. 

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Credits 

Protein structures 

RNA structures 

[pauliacomi]

I'm here from the future to witness the beginnings of a million subscriber channel. Also, in 2022 this guy replaces Hank Green after his tragic whey protein overdose.

[hiatel]

I can feel you getting better with every new video. All you need is a spark and your channel will explode i'm sure of it. Even if it doesn't, this is work you should be proud of!

[atmoran]

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A tip I can give you is don't try to blow up solo cause thats very hard and you probably won't succeed. Try collaborating with other science channels in the future. I'm sure some of them won't mind helping a small but quality creator out!
Also try to build up a brand. For example kurzgesagt has its birds, Because Science has a unique drawing style, Its Okay to Be Smart lets us associate his videos with his face throughout the whole video, not just the end. Make something that will stay in peoples minds and associate your videos with it.
One more advice which I gave before is trying out jokes, I know its really hard getting it right but you wont get it right unless you try. 3 examples I gave all uses jokes for example, because only talking about facts without any breaks might be boring to people and get stale quickly.(Sadly) The part where you kinda sarcastically said "the harsh conditions of the test tube created the Spiegelman's monster" is a great start for the whole jokes thing for example. Try improving upon this and perhaps making it a little bit obvious is a great start in my opinion.

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[captainchemist]

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[azucenamolinasolis]

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[francescomarzotto]

Beautiful and fascinating! I hope you get a lot of recognition for your work

[SaftoRangen]

Very interesting video! The only thing I couldn't figure out, though, is what the goal of his research was. Maybe I'm not seeing the forest because of all the trees, but what was he trying to accomplish? Sorry if this is a stupid question :D

Just watched it again - So the accomplishment was that he basically shortened the RNA to a much shorter length that was required to bind with the protein? Was that the original goal he set out for? 🤔

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[SpectraVV]

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[vn]

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[brewhog]

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[ShadowTodem]

This is bing. It was nicely explained and changed my understanding of the world cell organelles. RNA are more powerful in a way that there is less known by the public.

[hannahb]

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[yogawithkatariina]

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[IoCalisto_]

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