Mitochondria are your body’s power plants – inside each of your cells, they convert sugars into energy. Last month, Harvard released this breathtaking 3D animation that shows a mitochondrion at work. Some call it the greatest science video ever made.
Creators of the video explain:
The animation highlights the production of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) – mobile molecules which store chemical energy derived from the breakdown of foodstuffs. ATP molecules act as a kind of currency, imparting chemical energy to power most of the cell’s activities.
I would love to get a more complete explanation of what we’re seeing here, so if any molecular biologists want to offer one in comments I’ll add it to the post.
There’s a terrific story up on the New York Times today about the scientists who created this video, as well as other 3D visualizations of life inside our cells:
