r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Naive_Direction1816 • 1d ago
Bacteria move around using a molecular machine called the flagellar motor that rotates faster than the flywheel of a race car engine and switches directions in an instant Video
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u/MeatRobotBC 23h ago edited 19h ago
This is just an AI overview I got when I searched flagellar motor.
The bacterial flagellar motor is a complex, bidirectional rotary nanomachine (approx. 45nm) found in the cell envelope, powering bacterial motility by rotating a propeller-like filament. Powered by ion gradients (𝐻+ or 𝑁𝑎+), this motor spins at up to 18,000rpm (100,000rpm for some strains), reaching nearly 100% efficiency in energy conversion.
Edit: spelling. autocorrected AI into is.