zlacker

>>qqqqqu+(OP)
I would like to understand how cellular biology processes actually work. Like, how do all the right modules and proteins line up in the right orientation every time? Every time I watch animations, it seems like the proteins and such just magically appear when needed and disappear when not needed [0]. Sometimes it's an ultra-complex looking protein and it just magically flys over to the DNA, attaches to the correct spot, does it's thing, detaches, and flies away. Yeah right! As if the protein is being flown by a pilot. How does it really work?

[0] https://youtu.be/5VefaI0LrgE

>>umvi+go
The issue with these animations is that they're getting rid of all the thermal noise. In reality, single proteins are flying around the whole length of the cell many times a second, just from their thermal motion. And when processes like DNA transcription happen, they're not like a regular conveyor belt -- a fraction of the time the machine will even accidentally run steps in reverse! However, if any of this were shown, the animations would become impossible to understand.

>>knzhou+Yp
just once i would like to see the realistic animation though even if it's impossible to understand

>>chango+Kt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=42&v=uHeTQLNFTgU

This comes close -- It shows the jittery thermal motion of this tiny machinery, instead of nice smooth glides.

>>satori+Cy
this segment is not the worst, but the full version of inner life of the cell is terrible. Because they cheated, by reversing highly symmetrical processes, for example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_zD3NxSsD8&t=3m17s

The artistic director has a ted talk where he talks about how beautiful biological processes are, and it's like no, man, you made it look that way.

If you want a really fantastic video that captures just how messy and random it is I recommend the wehi videos, like the one on apoptosis, where the proteins look way more derpy than the secret life of the cell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR80Huxp4y8 There's a couple of places where they have a hexameric protein where things magically snap into place, but I give them a pass because the kinetics on that are atrociously slow. Let's just say for the sake of a short video the cameraman happened to be at the right place at the right time.