Med school is filled with...

incredibly talented individuals.

When was the last time you heard classical music? And not just out of a CD player or iTunes etc. Look, I walked down the hall in my dorm, mostly chipper, to my sliver of a room (7'x15'). The vibrations overtook my ear, the acoustics must be decent in the hallway, its a cello for sure because of the register. But more than the register, its the rich strong martial textures, like a guard. If you played the right series of notes, I would be forbidden from passing.

I smile and think to myself, "yet another virtuoso within arm's reach", I'm so spoiled, I live with too many virtuosos. Like a bratty kid with too many bonnets and candies is me. Pampered and primped, living with too many virtuosos, because apparently virtuosos are a dime a dozen here. Being incredibly enthusiastic about music I stopped in to say hello and to maybe mooch a free performance. I'm here because I am the foremost virtuoso at mooching...

I was right, cello this time. First, its such a beautiful instrument, it really is. The sound fills the room, but not in that affected, irritating cocktail party guest way. But instead more in that humble realization in meeting true greatness, hello I'm the sound, here I am, not rubbing it in or trying to make you feel inadequate, but feel free stare because this is real-deal kind of way. So, I guess instead one should say the sound holds up the room instead of filling it. Second, get the story, uh huh started playing young, you're kidding? uh huh conservatory, uh huh yes yes thats fine, all very interesting, but your value is not your story, its the skill you sacrificed so much to acquire. Its the trade you made all those days in your life, that we didn't make. That is your gift. That is what people who seek beauty are after, so play.

Third, wow, he can play. Its a truly moving sight and sound. As I sat there delighted, the music was a spirit filling the room, and the spirit whispered something in my ear having to do with...protein folding

But first, I have to plug the pieces. One classic and one I had never heard it before - Beethoven's ninth (4th movement of course) and one called called Julie-O. Man it wrecked me, the emotion of the pieces match me like prints at a crime scene. I often wonder if my level of music appreciation is shared by others, because it is such a high to watch it happen.

So whats a protein? Primarily, a polypeptide sequence, a chain of amino acids. It folds, bends, twists into its various conformations ultimately providing critical functions to the organism - hemoglobin, collagen, glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase... the list goes on for a very long time. But if the sequence is not just right, if it is off by so much as a few atoms (yes that's right atoms) you can have a meaningless, ineffective, many times harmful variation. Thus, the sequence determines whether or not the photoreceptors in your eyes respond to blue wavelengths of light, and the sequence dictates whether or not the sodium channels of your optic nerve can fully communicate that "blue" to the neurotransmitters in your visual cortex and later hippocampus so that the actin and myosin proteins in the muscle fibers of your face can say, "My wasn't the sky beautiful this morning?" All of it brought to you by proteins in an astronomically improbable exactly right sequence. The sequence gives us life. Hold that thought.

So the cello is a lifeless inanimate object by itself, and when it was in my hands it was not much different. I took a hand in playing it- lets just say you won't be seeing my name in lights next to the word "cello" anytime this fall concert season. I may have been causing it pain, at least judging from the way it sounded when I so clumsily bowed. That said, when it was in our player's hands, it was immediately transformed into an object that was capable of communicating and although there were no physical differences between he and I, I saw that it was the combination of the movements of his fingers that mattered. The sequence of notes communicated to me a subjective experience of beauty and hope made from the same building blocks I had, fingers, strings, and a bow. And yes, even if his sequence deviated slightly, if his intonation faltered, or for a moment was off by a quarter step (he wasn't), how that would change the experience. But if played perfectly, down to the atom, he gives the cello life. As I observed him play Beethoven's ninth, I remarked how every note is perfect, the sequence is perfect, and that he brought the cello to life and it communicated to me.

Maybe Beethoven's ninth symphony has 100,000 notes, lets be generous, 10,000,000 notes. Play them all perfectly and you are moved. It stirs emotions in you. You are moved, inspired, motivated. You make decisions, you now have plans, very important plans. There are 10,000,000 times 10,000,000 proteins in the tip of your pinky finger alone all working exactly perfectly at any given moment. Exactly sequenced, in perfect synchrony, performing on a nanosecond time signature. Include the rest of your body the number is so great, it no longer is a number as we know it. Consider the symphony of proteins vibrating in your body just this moment... the complexity and beauty of your sequence is beyond comprehension. The sequence is you.

I received the communication loud and clear. I am humbled.