3 ms·

Motor proteins look alive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-uuk4Pr2i8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-uuk4Pr2i8

Koshkin 5y ago
As do these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsLJdpjSJcM&t=15s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsLJdpjSJcM&t=15s
AprilArcus 5y ago
I love this animation because it's beautiful, but I hate that it gives the impression of deliberate one-foot-in-front-of-the-other movement. In reality, when the "foot" of the motor protein is unbound, it is oscillating to and fro in a state of brownian motion until it happens to snap into place at the next (or, infrequently but inevitably, the previous) subunit. At this scale, quantum effects such as tunneling come into play, and it would be cool to visualize the organized thermodynamic chaos of the cell rather than the mechanical operation of a homunculus.
- mncharity 5y ago
  > quantum effects such as tunneling come into play Really? I'd not have expected that. > but I hate that it gives the impression Oh yes. Rather than being towed, the payload explores its entire tethered configuration space between one step and the next. Not a donkey walking along a river towing a barge, but a mouse clinging to wire and a balloon a hurricane. The nanoscale moshpit from hell. It's like creating education content about human locomotion, for aliens completely unfamiliar with it, and with no sense of what's plausible, and showing them only one of those stop motion videos where someone floats along not touching the ground. An extremely biased selection of video frames to tell a very false narrative. Worse, this and other misconceptions engendered might be mitigated by very briefly including other representations... but the folks who created the video explicitly prioritize "pretty" over "do no harm". Which rather diminishes my appreciation of their beauty. > cool to visualize the organized thermodynamic Years ago I saw a video at a talk, of simulated viral icosahedral capsid assembly. The panels are tethered together, to maintain proximity, as they bounce and slam together and apart, incrementally assembling and misassembling. I wish I could link to it. If anyone knows of content to give a visceral feel for nanoscale dynamics, I'd appreciate hearing of it.
- mensetmanusman 5y ago
  Do you truly hate it, or were your feelings oscillating to and fro in an emergent Brownian motion until your feelings snapped into hate instead of love ;)

As do these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsLJdpjSJcM&t=15s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsLJdpjSJcM&t=15s

I love this animation because it's beautiful, but I hate that it gives the impression of deliberate one-foot-in-front-of-the-other movement. In reality, when the "foot" of the motor protein is unbound, it is oscillating to and fro in a state of brownian motion until it happens to snap into place at the next (or, infrequently but inevitably, the previous) subunit. At this scale, quantum effects such as tunneling come into play, and it would be cool to visualize the organized thermodynamic chaos of the cell rather than the mechanical operation of a homunculus.

mncharity 5y ago
> quantum effects such as tunneling come into play Really? I'd not have expected that. > but I hate that it gives the impression Oh yes. Rather than being towed, the payload explores its entire tethered configuration space between one step and the next. Not a donkey walking along a river towing a barge, but a mouse clinging to wire and a balloon a hurricane. The nanoscale moshpit from hell. It's like creating education content about human locomotion, for aliens completely unfamiliar with it, and with no sense of what's plausible, and showing them only one of those stop motion videos where someone floats along not touching the ground. An extremely biased selection of video frames to tell a very false narrative. Worse, this and other misconceptions engendered might be mitigated by very briefly including other representations... but the folks who created the video explicitly prioritize "pretty" over "do no harm". Which rather diminishes my appreciation of their beauty. > cool to visualize the organized thermodynamic Years ago I saw a video at a talk, of simulated viral icosahedral capsid assembly. The panels are tethered together, to maintain proximity, as they bounce and slam together and apart, incrementally assembling and misassembling. I wish I could link to it. If anyone knows of content to give a visceral feel for nanoscale dynamics, I'd appreciate hearing of it.
mensetmanusman 5y ago
Do you truly hate it, or were your feelings oscillating to and fro in an emergent Brownian motion until your feelings snapped into hate instead of love ;)