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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Zerush@lemmy.ml to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

Always walking with happiness hormons to help if you are down

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[-] sheridan@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Do they move this slowly? Or is this animation in bullet time?

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

IIRC it's like 10.000 times faster (I can be wrong but then it's probably way faster).

[-] partner_boat_slug@mander.xyz 9 points 1 year ago

I guess this depends on environmental conditions such as

  • temperature
  • acidity of the internal cell environment
  • how available is energy? My guess this mechanism is powered by ATP?
[-] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 year ago

This animation isn't just sped up, it's also simplified. In reality they don't take steady, purposeful steps. They spaz out with random vibrations (Brownian motion) until the "foot" clicks into place by random chance, then the other one releases and the process repeats. It's like shaking a container filled with legos until they assemble themselves. The proteins are just shaped in such a way that "walking" is the most probable outcome.

[-] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

The animation is actually slowed down. Kinesin can take something like 100 steps per second. Each step is about 8 nm, and they've been observed to move 600-1000 nm per second.

In reality it wiggles around in Brownian motion but the equilibrium of it "clicking" into place is so attractive that it keeps happening really fast.

this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2025
324 points (97.4% liked)

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