ATP synthase in action

Professor Lue from Harvard has a pretty cool visualization of how ATP synthase uses rotation and the energy produced through cellular respiration to produce ATP at link to this video , slightly more visceral than digging through a paper for a layperson.

Motor proteins are so incredibly cool. Like many others I was blown away by the 3D animated Inner Life of the Cell1 showing these proteins physically walking around in the cell. Previously I had this idea that cells were just blobs of jelly and somehow they interacted with each-other to produce macro phenomena like muscle movement. And then you get into the other protein machines like the ATP synthase in the mitochondria 2 (also linked below) which are actually little motors/pumps. And we all have billions of these inside use spinning away. It's just amazing. 1. link 2. link to this video

ATP synthase! link to this video link I think of it as a hydroelectric power plant. Hydrogen atoms are water, the electrochemical gradient is gravity and the enzyme is the turbine.

This is an animation and cursory explanation of ATP synthesis, with suitably dramatic music: link This animation and associated narration is much more detailed, but a bit slow for something you haven't vetted your interest in yet :) link to this video

Chemicals don't need to chemically react. Especially for biology, merely existing is enough. Lots of biological regulation is done by influencing three-dimensional shapes of the huge highly complex structures called proteins. Organic chemistry especially is a science of complex three dimensional structures and its dynamic changes, at least as important as actually altering the chemical structure. Often they are not static but have moving parts, because not all bonds restrict movement of the atoms connected through that bond in relation to the other part. Many have what's call binding sites - other molecules fitting to those sites won't be altered or alter the chemical structure of the protei…

It seems like you've misremembered the situation somewhat. Merkle developed several of his families of mechanical logic, including this one, in order to answer some criticisms of Drexler's earliest mechanical nanotechnology proposals. Specifically: 1. Chemists were concerned that rod logic knobs touching each other would form chemical bonds and remain stuck together, rather than disengaging for the next clock cycle. (Macroscopic metal parts usually don't work this way, though "cold welding" is a thing, especially in space.) So this proposal‚ like some earlier ones like Merkle's buckling-spring logic, avoids any contact between unconnected parts of the mechanism, whether sliding or coming int…