Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics, Second Edition

Chapter 2 introduces ways to access molecular data, including information about DNA and proteins. One of the first scientists to study proteins was Iacopo Bartolomeo Beccari (1682–1776), an Italian philosopher and physician who discovered protein as a component of vegetables. This image is from page 123 of the Bologna Commentaries, published in 1745 and written by a secretary on the basis of a 1728 lecture by Beccari. Beccari separated gluten (plant proteins) from wheaten flour. The passage beginning Res est parvi laboris (“it is a thing of little labor”; see solid arrowhead) is translated as follows (Beach, 1961, p. 362):

“It is a thing of little labor. Flour is taken of the best wheat, moderately ground, the bran not passing though the sieve, for it is necessary that this be fully purged away, so that all traces of a mixture have been removed. Then it is mixed with pure water and kneaded. What is left by this procedure, washing clarifies. Water carries off with itself all it is able to dissolve, the rest remains untouched. After this, what the water leaves is worked with the hands, and pressed upon in the water that has stayed. Slowly it is drawn together in a doughy mass, and beyond what is possible to be believed, tenacious, a remarkable sort of glue, and suited to many uses; and what is especially worthy of note, it cannot any longer be mixed with water. The other particles, ...