Levinthal's paradox.
Levinthal's paradox is that finding the native folded state of a protein by a random search among all possible configurations can take an enormously long time. Yet proteins can fold in seconds or less. Mathematical analysis of a simple model shows that a small and physically reasonable energy bias against locally unfavorable configurations, of the order of a few kT, can reduce Levinthal's time to a biologically significant size.
Zwanzig
R
R
Laboratory of Chemical Physics, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Szabo
A
A
Bagchi
B
B
D008433:Mathematics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
D011506:Proteins