5 ms·

This video invokes fear in me. Like, those alien machines (viruses) are doing their weirdo stuff countless times a second in my body. Horrifying.

by op00to 2y ago

Terr_ 2y ago
If it helps, consider that "your body" is the-same-or-more dangerously impressive, with layers of hideously effective defenses to displace or starve or murder anything that gets close, a swarming hive of unfathomable nanotechnology winnowed over millions of years of adversity between the many inheritors of an ancient grey-goo apocalypse. Just from one eldritch hive-mind to another.
- op00to 2y ago
  I'm not afraid of the viruses per se, I trust in my immune system. It's more the extreme intricacy of the whole damn meatbag. Kinda like looking up at the stars in an ultra-dark environment and seeing more stars than you've ever seen before. I get a little dizzy. Don't get me started on math.
  - _Microft 2y ago
    Maybe you are talking about "awe"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awe
    - op00to 2y ago
      Yup!
  - postalrat 2y ago
    That's why I consider biology a type of alien technology that we've been trying to reverse engineer but are still a ways away.
  - jiggawatts 2y ago
    If math can make you feel awe, you've got to watch the Numberphile series on very big numbers. They're constants used in proofs that are specific, well-defined integers known to be finite, but so huge that the physical universe does not have enough particles (or even Plank-scale microstates) in it to represent the number of digits these numbers have! Absolutely mind-bending stuff. Listed in increasing order: "Graham's Number" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTeJ64KD5cg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTeJ64KD5cg "How Big is Graham's Number? (feat Ron Graham)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuigptwlVHo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuigptwlVHo "The Enormous TREE(3)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P6DWAwwViU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P6DWAwwViU "TREE(3) (extra footage)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IihcNa9YAPk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IihcNa9YAPk "The Daddy of Big Numbers (Rayo's Number)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3l0fPHZja8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3l0fPHZja8
- tstrimple 2y ago
  There's even some great Kurzgesagt videos on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXfEK8G8CUI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXfEK8G8CUI
yazzku 2y ago
Damn... And proteins are not living organisms, but the video makes them look like autonomous agents and even states thing like "the virus recruits new proteins". Is this mostly an anthropomorphization of the events, or did I miss the relevant episode of biology?
- nwiswell 2y ago
  > Is this mostly an anthropomorphization of the events Yes. Basically everything is bumping around until the desired reaction or configuration is obtained. The irrelevant proteins are generally not shown. The length scales involved are extremely short so the chaotic soup works itself into configuration shockingly quickly. There are also membranes, vesicles, and organelles (e.g. Golgi) that partition, package, and redistribute proteins so that they tend to be more concentrated where required.
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago
    > Basically everything is bumping around until the desired reaction or configuration is obtained. Dare I say it? That sounds alot like what we do in the office most of the time.
    - gravescale 2y ago
      "Employing an bio-mimic evolutionary compilation algorithm" does sound better than "changing things semi-randomly until it compiles and passes the tests".
- op00to 2y ago
  Protein folding freaks me out too.
- dqv 2y ago
  This post or something similar has been posted to HN before: http://www.righto.com/2011/07/cells-are-very-fast-and-crowded-places.html?m=1 http://www.righto.com/2011/07/cells-are-very-fast-and-crowde... It makes a lot more sense when described from this perspective: >You may wonder how things get around inside cells if they are so crowded. It turns out that molecules move unimaginably quickly due to thermal motion. A small molecule such as glucose is cruising around a cell at about 250 miles per hour, while a large protein molecule is moving at 20 miles per hour. Note that these are actual speeds inside the cell, not scaled-up speeds. I'm not talking about driving through a crowded Times Square at 20 miles per hour; to scale this would be more like driving through Times Square at 20 million miles per hour! >Because cells are so crowded, molecules can't get very far without colliding with something. In fact, a molecule will collide with something billions of times a second and bounce off in a different direction. Because of this, molecules are doing a random walk through the cell and diffusing all around. A small molecule can get from one side of a cell to the other in 1/5 of a second. >As a result of all this random motion, a typical enzyme can collide with something to react with 500,000 times every second. Watching the video, you might wonder how the different pieces just happen to move to the right place. In reality, they are covering so much ground in the cell so fast that they will be in the "right place" very frequently just by chance.
deepfriedchokes 2y ago
The music sure doesn’t help!
squigz 2y ago
It freaks me out too. At the same time, the fact that we know so much about biology comforts me - we can build our own little machines :)

This video invokes fear in me. Like, those alien machines (viruses) are doing their weirdo stuff countless times a second in my body. Horrifying.

by op00to 2y ago

This video invokes fear in me. Like, those alien machines (viruses) are doing their weirdo stuff countless times a second in my body. Horrifying.

Terr_ 2y ago

If it helps, consider that "your body" is the-same-or-more dangerously impressive, with layers of hideously effective defenses to displace or starve or murder anything that gets close, a swarming hive of unfathomable nanotechnology winnowed over millions of years of adversity between the many inheritors of an ancient grey-goo apocalypse. Just from one eldritch hive-mind to another.

op00to 2y ago
I'm not afraid of the viruses per se, I trust in my immune system. It's more the extreme intricacy of the whole damn meatbag. Kinda like looking up at the stars in an ultra-dark environment and seeing more stars than you've ever seen before. I get a little dizzy. Don't get me started on math.
- _Microft 2y ago
  Maybe you are talking about "awe"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awe
  - op00to 2y ago
    Yup!
- postalrat 2y ago
  That's why I consider biology a type of alien technology that we've been trying to reverse engineer but are still a ways away.
- jiggawatts 2y ago
  If math can make you feel awe, you've got to watch the Numberphile series on very big numbers. They're constants used in proofs that are specific, well-defined integers known to be finite, but so huge that the physical universe does not have enough particles (or even Plank-scale microstates) in it to represent the number of digits these numbers have! Absolutely mind-bending stuff. Listed in increasing order: "Graham's Number" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTeJ64KD5cg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTeJ64KD5cg "How Big is Graham's Number? (feat Ron Graham)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuigptwlVHo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuigptwlVHo "The Enormous TREE(3)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P6DWAwwViU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P6DWAwwViU "TREE(3) (extra footage)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IihcNa9YAPk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IihcNa9YAPk "The Daddy of Big Numbers (Rayo's Number)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3l0fPHZja8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3l0fPHZja8
tstrimple 2y ago
There's even some great Kurzgesagt videos on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXfEK8G8CUI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXfEK8G8CUI

yazzku 2y ago

Damn... And proteins are not living organisms, but the video makes them look like autonomous agents and even states thing like "the virus recruits new proteins". Is this mostly an anthropomorphization of the events, or did I miss the relevant episode of biology?

nwiswell 2y ago
> Is this mostly an anthropomorphization of the events Yes. Basically everything is bumping around until the desired reaction or configuration is obtained. The irrelevant proteins are generally not shown. The length scales involved are extremely short so the chaotic soup works itself into configuration shockingly quickly. There are also membranes, vesicles, and organelles (e.g. Golgi) that partition, package, and redistribute proteins so that they tend to be more concentrated where required.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago
  > Basically everything is bumping around until the desired reaction or configuration is obtained. Dare I say it? That sounds alot like what we do in the office most of the time.
  - gravescale 2y ago
    "Employing an bio-mimic evolutionary compilation algorithm" does sound better than "changing things semi-randomly until it compiles and passes the tests".
op00to 2y ago
Protein folding freaks me out too.
dqv 2y ago
This post or something similar has been posted to HN before: http://www.righto.com/2011/07/cells-are-very-fast-and-crowded-places.html?m=1 http://www.righto.com/2011/07/cells-are-very-fast-and-crowde... It makes a lot more sense when described from this perspective: >You may wonder how things get around inside cells if they are so crowded. It turns out that molecules move unimaginably quickly due to thermal motion. A small molecule such as glucose is cruising around a cell at about 250 miles per hour, while a large protein molecule is moving at 20 miles per hour. Note that these are actual speeds inside the cell, not scaled-up speeds. I'm not talking about driving through a crowded Times Square at 20 miles per hour; to scale this would be more like driving through Times Square at 20 million miles per hour! >Because cells are so crowded, molecules can't get very far without colliding with something. In fact, a molecule will collide with something billions of times a second and bounce off in a different direction. Because of this, molecules are doing a random walk through the cell and diffusing all around. A small molecule can get from one side of a cell to the other in 1/5 of a second. >As a result of all this random motion, a typical enzyme can collide with something to react with 500,000 times every second. Watching the video, you might wonder how the different pieces just happen to move to the right place. In reality, they are covering so much ground in the cell so fast that they will be in the "right place" very frequently just by chance.

deepfriedchokes 2y ago

The music sure doesn’t help!

squigz 2y ago

It freaks me out too. At the same time, the fact that we know so much about biology comforts me - we can build our own little machines :)