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by mncharity 839 days ago
> The Kinesin in particular are cute.

Yes... though regrettably, that render is profoundly misleading. The payload is actually flailing around violently. Dancing in the molecular nanoscale moshpit from hell. Between each glacial step, the payload basically explores its entire tethered configuration space. Picture balloon in a hurricane tied to a mouse clinging to a wire, rather than a donkey towing a barge. The render optimizes for art over education, for pretty over engendering misconceptions.

Consider filming a runner, and only showing frames where the arms and legs are in the same unmoving positions, the rigid person quietly floating along over the ground. Or a soccer game render, of floating statues. Not without value, but profoundly misleading. Especially for the poor alien student, deeply unfamiliar with animal life and planetary surfaces.

One nice aspect of TFA, is rendering a moment frozen in time. Rendering non-bogus dynamics remains a hard open problem.