Is DNA Animation Truly Real-Time?

[Hornbein]

Nicely done. Supercomputer?

They say the animation is real time but wouldn't the real thing be much quicker?

 

[Drakkith]

They say the animation is real time but wouldn't the real thing be much quicker?

Why's that?

 

[Hornbein]

Why's that?

Because molecules are minuscule. Things happen much faster way down there.

 

[Drakkith]

Because molecules are minuscule. Things happen much faster way down there.

Without a clear indication of how fast things are happening in the video I can't say anything either way. The speed looked plausible to my mostly untrained eye but that doesn't mean much.

 

[Frabjous]

If I look at this, it says that transcription takes about 10min/gene and that protein translation takes around 1min/protein (for mammalian cell lines)
https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(16)30208-2.pdf

 

[Drakkith]

And keep in mind that the cell can do things to different parts of the DNA at the same time. It's not limited to translating one protein at a time for example.

 

[Hornbein]

If I look at this, it says that transcription takes about 10min/gene and that protein translation takes around 1min/protein (for mammalian cell lines)
https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(16)30208-2.pdf

At one million times magnification that's equivalent to 20 years for a gene transcription. I guess that's the cellular equivalent of building a cathedral. Depending so heavily on random thermal motion slows things down. Two years for protein translation, no wonder they need so many copies of everything in order to get anything done.

I once had a little group of a dozen unusual red beetles appear in my Bali kitchen. Their motion appeared to be completely random. But they moved as a group. Very slowly. It took them an hour to get across the living room. So about 1% of what they did was purposeful.

 

[Drakkith]

At one million times magnification that's equivalent to 20 years for a gene transcription.

What does magnification have to do with the time it takes for transcription?

 

[Hornbein]

What does magnification have to do with the time it takes for transcription?

It is a measure of how small the things in question actually are. One million times smaller than what we see on the screen. Things are a million times closer together and weigh a quintillion times less than things of the size we see on the screen. So I'd expect construction to go a million times faster. If it were purposeful I suppose it would. So depending so heavily on random thermal motion slows things down a million times. That's the rough idea.

 

[Drakkith]

It is a measure of how small the things in question actually are. One million times smaller than what we see on the screen. Things are a million times closer together and weigh a quintillion times less than things of the size we see on the screen. So I'd expect construction to go a million times faster.

That's not how it works. Magnification has nothing to do with how fast something takes.

 

[Hornbein]

That's not how it works. Magnification has nothing to do with how fast something takes.

Oh come on. If two things are a million times closer together, they can be assembled much more quickly. I'm not going to respond to this bald assertion again.

 

[Drakkith]

Oh come on. If two things are a million times closer together, they can be assembled much more quickly. I'm not going to respond to this bald assertion again.

What? Magnification is an optical effect, not a physical one. If I zoom in on some ants with my camera they don't suddenly slow down because they are bigger.

 

[pinball1970]

Nicely done. Supercomputer?

They say the animation is real time but wouldn't the real thing be much quicker?

I liked the video, I have no idea how accurate it is in terms of speed.

Gene transcription looks pretty quick, see the molecules whizzing past in the cytoplasm?

I was wondering why everything was vibrating like that then remembered Brownian motion, I suppose that is it?

I assume all the colours are added.

I loved the sounds, who noticed the Bee sound during epigenetic tagging!

 

[Hornbein]

I liked the video, I have no idea how accurate it is in terms of speed.

Gene transcription looks pretty quick, see the molecules whizzing past in the cytoplasm?

I was wondering why everything was vibrating like that then remembered Brownian motion, I suppose that is it?

I assume all the colours are added.

I loved the sounds, who noticed the Bee sound during epigenetic tagging!

Yep, Brownian motion all right. Colors added just to help distinguish what's what.

When an enzyme produces a molecule it usually just dumps it into the cytoplasm and lets random thermal motion carry it to any site that needs it. It may not be the quickest but the molecule gets there complete free of charge. Costs not one iota.

 

[sophiecentaur]

If two things are a million times closer together

Separation is not magnification - length is the relevant unit.