4 ms·

This is a great animation of the life cycle of an HIV virus. It’s not exactly what happens with the pandemic virus but it gives you a good idea of the complexi

by jcims 6y ago

This is a great animation of the life cycle of an HIV virus. It’s not exactly what happens with the pandemic virus but it gives you a good idea of the complexity of the process of viral reproduction (vaccine or immune response isn’t covered here): https://vimeo.com/260291607 https://vimeo.com/260291607 Animation of transcription from mRNA: https://youtu.be/TfYf_rPWUdY https://youtu.be/TfYf_rPWUdY

nielsbot 6y ago
It blows my mind to see how life (and death) work at the molecular level--it's almost like some kind of manmade machine, but far more subtle and complex.
- shpongled 6y ago
  As a biochemist, that's one of the things that has kept me interested in the work - it's truly mind boggling what is going on at the molecular level every second of our lives.
  - jcims 6y ago
    I love reading articles around biology, micro/molecular biology in particular, and looking for references to agency in the text. 'selects', 'filters', 'checks', 'seeks', etc when the reality is that the whole thing is just a massive chemical reaction.
- ssener2001 6y ago
  Yes.One must know all programming of molecules and all laws current in the universe. perfect hierarchy from atoms to the cells, from cells to plants, animals from animals to earth, from earth to stars
- dnautics 6y ago
  Just remember that it's not really orchestrated. All of the molecules involve are kind of randomly blundering about and it's one-in-a-million collisions that are responsible for getting shit done (on membranes it's more like one in a thousand and on ropelike structures like dna or actin it's one in a hundred).
- shadowofneptune 6y ago
  These might interest you then: 3d visualizations of cellular processes in real time. I was shown them in my intro to biology class, which filled me with the same interest. Transcriptase: https://youtu.be/5MfSYnItYvg https://youtu.be/5MfSYnItYvg DNA polymerase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bee6PWUgPo8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bee6PWUgPo8 The Ribosome: https://youtu.be/TfYf_rPWUdY https://youtu.be/TfYf_rPWUdY
  - jcims 6y ago
    It's been decades since I was in high school but I really hope these videos, or something similarly realistic and mind-bending, is in the modern biology curriculum. Learning about Darwin, Mendel, Watson and Crick and the experiments they did to develop an understanding of biology was informative, but it wasn't compelling to me. These and the work of Drew Berry and WEHI are just amazing: https://www.youtube.com/user/WEHImovies/videos https://www.youtube.com/user/WEHImovies/videos
  - dnautics 6y ago
    I like the wehi videos because they take effort to make the molecular motions appear to be random, a result of stuff blundering about: https://youtu.be/7Hk9jct2ozY https://youtu.be/7Hk9jct2ozY
JonathonW 6y ago
Coronavirus replication is pretty dramatically different from HIV replication-- coronaviruses are not retroviruses, and do not have a step where viral RNA is converted into DNA and integrated into the host cell's genome. Instead, coronavirus RNA is directly interpreted by the cell's ribosomes to make the proteins that ultimately build and comprise the replicated viruses. The mRNA vaccines work in much the same way-- it's just that the mRNA vaccines only include the code for the spike protein and not the rest of the virus's machinery. So you get the vaccine and your body produces a bunch of spike protein by itself, which gives your immune system the opportunity to learn how to identify and react to the spike protein before it sees it on a real virus.
retSava 6y ago
The "SARS-CoV-2 entry" video was really interesting too, and I recommend watching them both to see how they are different. https://vimeo.com/510310488 https://vimeo.com/510310488
- jcims 6y ago
  Nice!!! I didn’t even notice that was uploaded! The differences between HIV and SARS-CoV-2 makes me wonder what reliability there is in this process, and if some viruses are more reliably able to enter the cell than others (presumably those that are more infectious?)

by jcims 6y ago

nielsbot 6y ago

It blows my mind to see how life (and death) work at the molecular level--it's almost like some kind of manmade machine, but far more subtle and complex.

shpongled 6y ago
As a biochemist, that's one of the things that has kept me interested in the work - it's truly mind boggling what is going on at the molecular level every second of our lives.
- jcims 6y ago
  I love reading articles around biology, micro/molecular biology in particular, and looking for references to agency in the text. 'selects', 'filters', 'checks', 'seeks', etc when the reality is that the whole thing is just a massive chemical reaction.
ssener2001 6y ago
Yes.One must know all programming of molecules and all laws current in the universe. perfect hierarchy from atoms to the cells, from cells to plants, animals from animals to earth, from earth to stars
dnautics 6y ago
Just remember that it's not really orchestrated. All of the molecules involve are kind of randomly blundering about and it's one-in-a-million collisions that are responsible for getting shit done (on membranes it's more like one in a thousand and on ropelike structures like dna or actin it's one in a hundred).
shadowofneptune 6y ago
These might interest you then: 3d visualizations of cellular processes in real time. I was shown them in my intro to biology class, which filled me with the same interest. Transcriptase: https://youtu.be/5MfSYnItYvg https://youtu.be/5MfSYnItYvg DNA polymerase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bee6PWUgPo8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bee6PWUgPo8 The Ribosome: https://youtu.be/TfYf_rPWUdY https://youtu.be/TfYf_rPWUdY
- jcims 6y ago
  It's been decades since I was in high school but I really hope these videos, or something similarly realistic and mind-bending, is in the modern biology curriculum. Learning about Darwin, Mendel, Watson and Crick and the experiments they did to develop an understanding of biology was informative, but it wasn't compelling to me. These and the work of Drew Berry and WEHI are just amazing: https://www.youtube.com/user/WEHImovies/videos https://www.youtube.com/user/WEHImovies/videos
- dnautics 6y ago
  I like the wehi videos because they take effort to make the molecular motions appear to be random, a result of stuff blundering about: https://youtu.be/7Hk9jct2ozY https://youtu.be/7Hk9jct2ozY

JonathonW 6y ago

Coronavirus replication is pretty dramatically different from HIV replication-- coronaviruses are not retroviruses, and do not have a step where viral RNA is converted into DNA and integrated into the host cell's genome. Instead, coronavirus RNA is directly interpreted by the cell's ribosomes to make the proteins that ultimately build and comprise the replicated viruses. The mRNA vaccines work in much the same way-- it's just that the mRNA vaccines only include the code for the spike protein and not the rest of the virus's machinery. So you get the vaccine and your body produces a bunch of spike protein by itself, which gives your immune system the opportunity to learn how to identify and react to the spike protein before it sees it on a real virus.

retSava 6y ago

The "SARS-CoV-2 entry" video was really interesting too, and I recommend watching them both to see how they are different. https://vimeo.com/510310488 https://vimeo.com/510310488

jcims 6y ago
Nice!!! I didn’t even notice that was uploaded! The differences between HIV and SARS-CoV-2 makes me wonder what reliability there is in this process, and if some viruses are more reliably able to enter the cell than others (presumably those that are more infectious?)