4 ms·
With how massively parallel the human body is, this process is copying DNA at an average rate of around 1 million miles per hour if you put all the DNA into a s
by HPsquared 10mo ago
With how massively parallel the human body is, this process is copying DNA at an average rate of around 1 million miles per hour if you put all the DNA into a single string. (Consider that each human cell contains about 2 metres worth of DNA)
- pama 10mo agoI’d be curious about this global replication rate as a function of age.
- my-toe-siz 10mo agoThere isn't a global rate, mitotis rate depends on the cell type and many other inputs. For example, see Table 1: https://book.bionumbers.org/how-quickly-do-different-cells-in-the-body-replace-themselves/ https://book.bionumbers.org/how-quickly-do-different-cells-i... You /could/ compute a global mean or median mitosis rate, and show how it changes/doesn't change with age, but it wouldn't say very much biologically. A narrower analysis that considers cell type and other context could be meaningful.
- af78 10mo agoA rate of 10 000 (ten thousand) RPM is mentioned in the video for certain bacteria. My background is in mechanical engineering, does RPM stand for revolutions per minute here? Sounds unbelievably fast for biochemical processes.
- timschmidt 10mo agoI find that a good rule is that the smaller the system, the faster the interactions. Also you may be interested in flagellar motors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPSm9gJkPxU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPSm9gJkPxU
- jcims 10mo agoYep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicase https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicase The wild thing is that it doesn't have a 'gas tank' of ATP to drive the reaction, it goes this fast while being fueled one molecule at a time from the environment. Where does the ATP come from? Buckle up my mechanical engineer friend - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT5AXGS1aL8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT5AXGS1aL8 I've watched that video a hundred times and it still gives me chills haha.
- rolph 10mo agothe reactant molecules themselves, are primed with an ATP like a one use capacitor, it provides threshold energy, and is "consumed" as part of the reaction.
- jcims 10mo agoNice. This was a detail I wasn't picking up on for some reason.
- jinnko 10mo agoI remember studying this in detail 30 years ago. To watch that whole process in a video now it's mind blowing. Thank you.