this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] yeahiknow3 54 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

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

https://youtube.com/shorts/Vlb9F_cj6As

So its the same but drunk?

[–] deaf_fish@midwest.social 1 points 7 hours ago

Whoa, does that mean they cool the cell as they walk? They are transferring energy from the Brownian motion which on average would result in a lower temperature in the surrounding particles.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Most motor proteins use brownian motion (the random vibration of particles) to "move" and make other actions, but you rarely see any rendering showing what it looks like in real-time because it's too fast and wiggly. All of these mechanical "clockwork" animations are super-slowed and clarified for better understanding.

There are hundreds of variations of this animation out there which are very similar, some made by major science organizations, so while you're right that it's not "true to life" it's the standard, acceptable model, and not entirely a product of a church. Although I've seen plenty of creation-science groups use all kinds of biomechanical motor motion to justify creationism, so it's hardly matters. They will believe what they want and interpret what they want no mater what.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 5 points 8 hours ago

I teach cell biology. This is not an acceptable model. Kinesins don't lift their feet to walk. This is a Disney version of the mechanism.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Jordan117@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 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.

[–] yeahiknow3 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

[–] Jordan117@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Relative to the speed shown in the visualizations. The pop-sci animations look like it takes one step every second or so, while in reality they do hundreds per second.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 hours ago

And they stop, pause, and can go backwards.

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca -5 points 1 day ago

I vote for the Baptists!!!! Yours sucks.