3 ms·
Protein-interaction videos often make molecular reactions seem "deterministic" when in reality everything is quite stochastic; the molecules are "bouncing" arou
by jdgiese 13y ago
Protein-interaction videos often make molecular reactions seem "deterministic" when in reality everything is quite stochastic; the molecules are "bouncing" around like crazy and each step may go back and forwards several times before completing. That said, I love the videos--its really amazing to think about all these little proteins bending and folding around all the time!
- pygy_ 13y agoThe stochastic aspects were also completely neglected in my chemistry courses. We were just taught about macroscopic, aggregate probabilities, and high level descriptions of the reactions, but not the nitty gritty details. I knew that chemical bounds were vibrating (with a frequency proportional to their energy, E=h(nu)), but, for some reason, I had never envisioned macromolecules wiggling and vibrating as a whole. Updating mental model :-)