Magnificent Computer Animation of Molecular Biology

[nemorathwald]

What you are about to see is not science fiction.

It appears to depict an alien civilization grander than the planet Coruscant of George Lucas' Star Wars prequels, but make no mistake, it's happening in every cell of your body right now. Real data from the sequencing of nucei, proteins and lipids was used in this animation, to create computer-simulated molecules in which every atom is in the same place as in one of your actual molecules. See the blog of PZ Myers for a professional's critique of the depiction.

Link: "Cellular Visions: The Inner Life of a Cell."

While I watched it, I was struck again by two things.

One is that I am watching an existence proof that molecular nanotechnology is possible. You and I could not exist if thermal noise/Brownian motion or quantum indeterminacy were insurmountable objections. Nanomachinery will engineered, and re-engineered, to be stronger, faster, more efficient, and more redundant. Unlike the sloppy, cluttered sea of imprecise molecular biology (a sea omitted by artistic license in the video so you could see specific processes in isolation), nanomachinery will be created by intelligent designers as rigid shafts, gears, and computers. Fundamental building blocks will snap together to work in molecular pockets of pure and clean vacuum.

The other thing that strikes me is that there is no mysterious "life force" animating our bodies, no spiritual "vigor vitae", no magic smoke. Science has vastly more knowledge than the animators were able to depict here. These systems are so well-understood that they can be computer-simulated down to the individual atom. And amazingly, they work without the moment-to-moment intervention of God. During embryology, a single society of molecules like this explodes into a constellation of cells in a whole lifeform, by themselves. If that can be so, then the evolution of the first crude organic molecules from a sea of self-sorting chemicals is easy to believe. By extension, the rest of the process of evolution is easy to believe in: protein by protein, system by system, in tiny, easy evolutionary steps-- each step given several billion trillion chances to happen.

Comments

[rachelann1977.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I giggled with glee watching that video as I attempted to identify every protein and organelle represented. It was pretty cool. I've seen various animations of these types of processes during my education, but this is by far the trippiest, most beautiful, and oddly, most accurate, even if they did leave out a huge amount of "molecular noise."

I agree with P.Z.'s critique, though, it seems to be meant for those who already know something about these processes, considering that nothing is explained. I was especially impressed, regardless, with the wonderful depiction of the parts of a cell youcan't see with a light microscope, or even half of the time with an electron microscope. All of those "ropes" are the cellular matrix, actin fibers and microtubules, which direct cellular traffic. When you look at that stuff uder a microscope, everything jusst looks like it's moving of it's own volition. Amazing stuff.

[gregvb.livejournal.com]

That was cool. Too bad they didn't put up the whole eight-min. version.

[dbvanhorn.livejournal.com]

The motor protien "walking" along is just astounding.

Maybe one of these days, we'll be able to image a cell more or less in real time like this, as an "enhanced" EM.
Very impressive work.