The Tide verse The Wave

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Before the lemming-like crowd movement known as the "Wave", there was the "Tide". At least it was in my high school. Those in the front row would explosively jump up and throw their hands in the air. The row behind them would do the same while the first row would regain their sensibility to sit back down. This continued with each row until the very back seats got to show that they too would jump off of a bridge if their best friends did so.

Because the cheerleaders would initiate this during our high school pep rallies, it was known as a "Pep Tide". Unfortunately, this explanation of a peptides did not help me pass my biology exam. All I remember is that amino acids come together to form peptides and proteins. Then, as now, I failed because I didn't know the distinction between peptides and proteins. But here we are 30 years later. I've just read that scientist themselves don't have a clear distinction between the two. Today I learned that there now is a "movement" in the scientific community to define a peptide as "an amino acid molecule without secondary structure; on gaining defined structure, it is a protein." Great! Just wonderful! I guess it's a bit too late to pass the exam now!