Biology is a Burrito: A text- and visual-based journey through a living cell
66 points by the-mitr 4 hours ago | 9 comments

rochak 16 minutes ago
Life is amazing. Can anyone recommend good modern starting points to someone who would want to learn more about how living beings work (from bottom up)? It has been a while since I actively delved into Biology (my school days).
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ggm 2 hours ago
Lets hear it for Van der Waals forces! Go team!

The painting is wonderful. Yes, it's a snapshot in time of a dynamic state. All paintings are!

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bhagyeshsp 4 hours ago
What a beautiful depiction. Reminds me of high fidelity 3D animation videos I used to watch about DNA replication, cell signalling etc.

One of the most fascinating parts to me was DNA transcription. The engineering is quite precise.

Found the video I was referring to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Hk9jct2ozY

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gavmor 48 minutes ago
Ugh, makes my skin crawl, it's so chaotic! And delicate-looking!
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ofrzeta 3 hours ago
Looks fascinating. Related: The Machinery of Life https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-0-387-84925-6 (actually it is the book of the person who drew the first illustration in the article but I could not see any mention of the book).
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bhagyeshsp 3 hours ago
Wow, aptly named "The Machinery of Life".
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AnonC 4 hours ago
> It's a wonder that cells get anything done at all.

> The first time I did these calculations, I felt an intense appreciation for biology. And now, I want everyone else to feel the same. We ought to teach students of biology to think as mathematicians: to carefully quantify biology, to think in absolute units, and to develop a feeling for the organism.

It was interesting to read this article, but I think I would’ve understood a lot more if this entire piece had been (or were) an animated video that described it. Text and a few animations don’t do enough justice for the passion, knowledge and detail that’s in this article, IMO.

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brudgers 3 hours ago
Logically that the burrito metaphor can explain monads, implies that the burrito metaphor can explain biology.
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ggm 2 hours ago
Lets hear it for Van der Waals forces! Go team!
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