&gt; More realistically, they are a simple list of materials (in this case a listing of proteins).<p>&gt; Its the equivalent of someone saying: 14,234 tons of steel..<p>I feel like that&#x27;s taking things a bit too far in the other direction. With our current understanding, it&#x27;s like saying:<p>14,234 tons of steel that&#x27;s capable of self-assembling (e.g., collagen), 23,000 tons of concrete that automatically folds into a specific structure (~everything other than disordered proteins).<p>That&#x27;s not to say that we fully understand how proteins fold&#x2F;function... but it&#x27;s a bit more than a static block of steel.