Bouncing Buckyballs #2

Buckyballs (http://www.getbuckyballs.com) act as a good conceptual model for self-assembly of complex proteins and DNA when shown bouncing on a granite substrate that contains small amounts of iron - enough to hold a buckyball in place, but easy enough to overcome with a little external energy.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Bouncing
• Magnetic
• 5MM
• Buckyballs
• Self-Assembly

[TechnoPickle]

Suggestion: put down a very thin layer of black velvet or black construction paper to eliminate reflections. Place several filtered lamps at various angles. Create several track-based feeders w/ spacing to prevent sticking. Simultaneously drop balls from different directions in rapid succession. Film in high speed. Watch awesome in-air interaction in slow-mo.

[wbradleyholtz]

@TechnoPickle Might be easier to achieve in an aquarium filled with a clear, but viscous fluid.

[shayhoe1]

So it might give you an idea of how DNA and complex proteins might self assemble, but I would be interested to see this experiment without anyone initiating anything. My hypothesis is that nothing would happen. What about your?

[wbradleyholtz]

@shayhoe1 Yes, if the system was entirely static and there was some granite analog holding everything in place, then perhaps there might be no movement. But there is not such thing holding everything in place, and everything is moving an vibrating, creating a constantly changing environment. Even at zero degrees Kelvin, there is some atomic vibration. The system would ALWAYS be self assembling.

[HiatusLucari]

@wbradleyholtz Theoretically, I could wind up in my grandmother's attic in the next moment, holding a monkey in my arms, if every sub-atomic particle in my body lined up exactly, 100 miles away. The probability of this happening are far beyond floating point accuracy even for one particle. The probability of you leaving this for a week and nothing happening is pretty high...

[wbradleyholtz]

@HiatusLucari What's your point? (Threading here is poor, so I don't know what you're responding to.)

[PatronSaint210]

I just cant believe you filmed almost nine minutes of this.

[SolomonJonesIsBack]

Holy crap at the one that landed on top of the other one

[TurnerIT]

Shitty Cam, but who am I talking mines shitty too : /

[milex94]

I agree with@ WBRADLEYHOLTZ

[NicFitNation]

Very cool; Chaos theory. I love the on that stands up at 00:52

[foozbong]

@wbradleyholtz Actually I was thinking more along the lines of scrolling to the sides after you were finished, or perhaps a smaller area to bounce through. The only reason is that there are some groups of balls, that are forming just out of view, as well as the bounce-path around them...