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                                                             on Gopher (inofficial)
  HTML Visit Hacker News on the Web
       
       
       COMMENT PAGE FOR:
  HTML   DNA Learning Center: Mechanism of Replication 3D Animation
       
       
        the__alchemist wrote 3 hours 36 min ago:
        It would be so cool if we could (Maybe it's been done?) do this with a
        simulation!
       
          timschmidt wrote 3 hours 30 min ago:
          I spoke to some researchers about this while working for a Science
          and Technology Research center affiliated with the regional
          supercomputer center.  I was told that there are still far too many
          molecules in a single cell to simulate fully, but that simulations
          had been run with state of the art quantum physics simulation
          software for some dozens or hundreds of molecules over several
          femtoseconds.  The researcher told me that this took several weeks of
          supercomputer time, and that when the results were examined one
          take-away was that "around biological molecules, water seems to
          behave in an exceedingly ordered manner" as if the water molecules
          themselves are an integral part of the machinery, not just a medium
          they're suspended in.
       
        bonyt wrote 4 hours 28 min ago:
        Hey, working at the DNALC was my first job when I was in high school. I
        made a port of their iOS 3D brain app for Android, based on
        pre-rendered images (which was the style at the time - 2009-ish).  It
        looks like it has since been taken down, which makes sense - I targeted
        my G1 at the time for acceptable performance, and Android broke things
        as it moved on.  I also helped out on some web apps at the time. Great
        experience. [1]
        
  HTML  [1]: https://dnalc.cshl.edu/resources/products/3d-brain-app.html
  HTML  [2]: https://web.archive.org/web/20230307055457/https://play.google...
       
        jcims wrote 4 hours 56 min ago:
        One name you'll find associated with many of these animations is Drew
        Berry.
        
        If I had these when I was in high school in the 80s I truly think I
        would have gone into molecular biology.  They are obviously have flaws
        in terms of a true representation of the process, but it makes the
        machine much more apparent and that's always been the thing that kept
        it at bay for me.
        
        More of this style of animation can be found in the WEHImovies channel
        on YouTube
        
  HTML  [1]: https://www.youtube.com/@WEHImovies/videos
       
        christoph123 wrote 5 hours 18 min ago:
        "Intricate as this mechanism appears, numerous components have been
        deliberately left out to avoid complete confusion" :D
       
          N_Lens wrote 4 hours 47 min ago:
          Wise choice
       
        HPsquared wrote 5 hours 26 min ago:
        With how massively parallel the human body is, this process is copying
        DNA at an average rate of around 1 million miles per hour if you put
        all the DNA into a single string. (Consider that each human cell
        contains about 2 metres worth of DNA)
       
          af78 wrote 3 hours 55 min ago:
          A rate of 10 000 (ten thousand) RPM is mentioned in the video for
          certain bacteria. My background is in mechanical engineering, does
          RPM stand for revolutions per minute here? Sounds unbelievably fast
          for biochemical processes.
       
            jcims wrote 3 hours 49 min ago:
            Yep [1] The wild thing is that it doesn't have a 'gas tank' of ATP
            to drive the reaction, it goes this fast while being fueled one
            molecule at a time from the environment.
            
            Where does the ATP come from?
            
            Buckle up my mechanical engineer friend - [2] I've watched that
            video a hundred times and it still gives me chills haha.
            
  HTML      [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicase
  HTML      [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT5AXGS1aL8
       
          pama wrote 5 hours 16 min ago:
          I’d be curious about this global replication rate as a function of
          age.
       
        timschmidt wrote 8 days ago:
        Complete list of DNALC animations here: [1] Some favorites: [2] [3] [4]
        
  HTML  [1]: https://dnalc.cshl.edu/resources/animations/
  HTML  [2]: https://dnalc.cshl.edu/resources/3d/13-transcription-advanced....
  HTML  [3]: https://dnalc.cshl.edu/resources/3d/16-translation-advanced.ht...
  HTML  [4]: https://dnalc.cshl.edu/resources/3d/08-how-dna-is-packaged-adv...
  HTML  [5]: https://dnalc.cshl.edu/resources/3d/central-dogma.html
       
          dataviz1000 wrote 4 hours 38 min ago:
          > [1] I stepped over people huddled on the sidewalk, dirty, splicing
          the fiber optic cable yesterday. I wonder how long before there are
          little robots that do the splicing without humans?
          
  HTML    [1]: https://dnalc.cshl.edu/resources/3d/central-dogma.html
       
            jcims wrote 3 hours 54 min ago:
            My brother does that exact work.
            
            From what I’ve gathered the actual splicing is partly automated
            today and relatively straightforward if somewhat tedious.  The big
            variable is the context.  New construction should have relatively
            few variables.
            
            With repair, everything goes out the window. I just talked to him
            last night and he was out on a cable cut repair all night Friday. 
            Middle of a snowstorm, maps were not accurate, repair site was very
            difficult to work in.
       
       
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