Ron Vale (UCSF, HHMI) 1: Molecular Motor Proteins
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters point to it to show how strange and mechanical cellular machinery is, and to explain how kinesin walks along microtubules.
What it is
Ron Vale of UCSF and HHMI gives an introductory lecture on kinesin, dynein and myosin motor proteins. He covers their roles in cells and how they turn ATP hydrolysis into directed motion and force.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2016 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends dghughes · 2016-11 · on “Alzheimer’s treatment fully restores memory function (2015)”
When I see stuff like this I have to say I am amazed at how precise some drugs are. Somewhat related I was watching a video about protein motors and how they work. They are small structures that walk on microtubules (as mentioned in the Alzheimer's article) inside cells. There are many types but some walk using hinged protein feet. The narrator explained how his team invented a drug that helped to make one step in that process better. They made the hinge part of the foot work normally giving it more strength. It was a single phosphate molecule added to this step. It was incredible to think one small part of a protein motor the "ankle" part of the foot of that one protein motor on a microtubu
Recommends dopylitty · 2021-09 · on “Tardigrades Walk”
If you think that’s cool you might also like to see the motor proteins that walk along inside our cells. There are a few types including the ones that make muscles work. Kinesin is fun because it has little legs made of proteins. It gloms onto big bubbles of stuff inside the cell and carries them along pathways to their destination. Chemical reactions cause the proteins to fold in the right way to take each step. This shows how they look. [LINK] This explains the mechanisms that they use to walk. [this video]
Recommends shagie · 2024-02 · on “Rendering protein structures inside cells at the atomic level with Unreal Engine”
[LINK] I didn't realize there was also a Powering the Cell: Mitochondria video. The classic one narrated - [LINK] One of my pandemic YouTube binges was watching Ron Vale videos about kinesin and dynein. [this video] [LINK] [LINK] And searching for Ron Vale will bring a number of other videos about molecular machines.
Cites gilbetron · 2020-01 · on “The Wuhan Virus”
The genomic machinery is incredible complex and messy. Imagine some code, that is interpreted by little machines not created by that code, that then create other machines, that read that code in a different way, to create other machines, that copy that code, which is then read by other machines, etc, etc. These "machines" are chunks of molecules that require quantum mechanics to fully understand, and also tend to have a lot of issues with them. As an example of the weirdness, look at motor proteins: [this video] It's amazing how utterly mad it all is, and yet not only does it work, our simple models of how it works have actually been helpful even though they were wrong. I mean, it's not like ther
Critical trevyn · 2020-03 · on “Consciousness Isn’t Self-Centered”
I only see simple biochemical machines in that video. Here’s what they look like when you zoom in a bit more: [this video] It’s literally chemical bonds breaking and forming, stochastically.