Always walking with happiness hormons to help if you are down

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[–] 55 points 1 year ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (10 children)

This animation was made by the Shenandoah Baptist Church and is famously misleading. The “steps” are the stochastic byproduct of Brownian motion. Here’s an accurate representation:

https://youtube.com/shorts/Vlb9F_cj6As

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

    How is it more accurate? I thought that in reality the "steps" are incredibly fast, but that makes it seem like it's a much slower and more uncertain process.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Fast relative to what? The point is that the kinesin protein doesn’t “walk” any more than floating debris “swims.”

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  • [–] 44 points 1 year ago (7 children)
  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago

    Also delivering unhappiness hormone

    Kinesin doesn't discriminate

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago

    You have to imagine him enjoying himself.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Do they move this slowly? Or is this animation in bullet time?

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    This animation isn't just sped up, it's also simplified. In reality they don't take steady, purposeful steps. They spaz out with random vibrations (Brownian motion) until the "foot" clicks into place by random chance, then the other one releases and the process repeats. It's like shaking a container filled with legos until they assemble themselves. The proteins are just shaped in such a way that "walking" is the most probable outcome.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    The animation is actually slowed down. Kinesin can take something like 100 steps per second. Each step is about 8 nm, and they've been observed to move 600-1000 nm per second.

    In reality it wiggles around in Brownian motion but the equilibrium of it "clicking" into place is so attractive that it keeps happening really fast.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Imagine if that protein suddenly gained conciousness and decides to meditate to gain higher spiritual awakening instead of transporting hormones.

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Then a friendly little chaperone protein would come and beat the living shit out of it until it folded itself again and stopped meditating, back to work :)

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    When you walkin'

    When you walkin'

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    We always keep moving forward. No matter what.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago
    [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    The real Sisyphos

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Is this the protein equivalent of the sole Tiananmen square protester ?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Making my way downtown

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    The Strongest Shape

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