Molecular biology animations

dna-replication.jpg
A few years ago, PBS ran a series called, simply, DNA. It included some of the spiciest, most inspiring animations of biological molecules in action that I’d ever seen. I longed to linger over them and savor them, but they came and went so fast in the show, and until this evening I had no idea who did the work. Over at information aesthetics I came across the 2006 infographics winners from Science magazine. One of these winners was Drew Berry of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia. He’s the guy who made the beautiful animations.

Armed with this information, I was able to track down the mother lode in short order. Here is a page pointing to the QuickTime videos that gave me the shivers. May I particularly recommend the insane fruitbat circus otherwise known as DNA replication. If a Divine and Perfect Intellect is responsible the design of this unlikely contraption, somebody’s got a lotta ‘splainin’ to do.

Finally, here is an interview with Drew Berry about how he got the gig for the DNA TV series.

2 thoughts on “Molecular biology animations”

  1. I remember the DNA replication animation as well; great stuff! Because it is my duty to whinge about such things, I will say that I am disappointed in Berry’s use of the term “Central Dogma” (that’s a whole other discussion), and I find his animation of protein translation less satisfying than Paul Berg’s version from the ’70s:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9dhO0iCLww

  2. Oh, had I only known of this great animation of replication last semester, before my molecular genetics exam! Thanks a lot for sharing, I’ve been looking at all of them on the WEH site :)

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