

Powering the Cell, Mitochondria - stunning new animation - hfinney
http://biovisions.mcb.harvard.edu/

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hfinney
Here is possibly a better link:

<http://biovisions.mcb.harvard.edu/anim_mitochondria.html>

This is a sequel to the Inner Life of a Cell animation that came out a few
years ago. It shows what happens inside the mitochondria, which supply power
to the cell.

A brief explanation:

We see a snake-like molecule go through a couple of holes. This is an unfolded
protein molecule and demonstrates that mitochondria mostly don't make their
own proteins, they have to be imported. Mitochondria have an inner and an
outer membrane so it has to go through two layers.

We follow it through the inner membrane and see the glory of the mitochondrial
interior. We zoom past (and through) a bunch of proteins that are involved in
oxidizing fuel molecules. There's a double helix DNA in the corner to remind
us that mitochondria do synthesize some of their own proteins.

We next zoom in on a piece of the inner membrane. studded with protein
complexes and surrounded by glowing molecules. Note that some of the proteins
have their bottom part spinning - these are ATP synthase, one of the most
amazing of proteins.

[Out of time now, will write more later...]

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jared314
Direct Link (because the video did not work for me on the website):

[http://biovisions.mcb.harvard.edu/Video/Mitochondria_480p.mo...](http://biovisions.mcb.harvard.edu/Video/Mitochondria_480p.mov)

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erikpukinskis
This would be insanely more useful if they would just put a few captions in.
It's really inspiring to look at, but how do I find out more? Search Google
for "the cool molecule in the harvard mitochondria animation that changes the
three bump blue thingies into the four bump glowing thingies"??

