5 min read

Friday, May 8, 2026

Hello. Science first this week.

Tag yourself, I'm "Che Y"
Obviously this is a bacterial flagellar motor. David S. Goodsell/PDB101.rcsb.ord / Modified by Quanta Magazine
What Physical ‘Life Force’ Turns Biology’s Wheels? | Quanta Magazine
The bacterial flagellar motor is finally understood after 50 years. In its workings, columnist Natalie Wolchover finds the essence of life.
Quanta MagazineNatalie Wolchover

It's utterly insane that this is how bacteria get around, and even more insane that it’s the result of a billion years of random mutation.

You should definitely click through for the description of how this particular mechanism works, which is fascinating – but it’s perhaps even more awe-inspiring to look down deeper into the fundamental force that powers it, along with everything else the cell does:

The proton motive force that drives the flagellar motor was proposed in 1961 by Peter Mitchell, a biochemist who worked out of his own private lab at a country estate in Cornwall, England. Though initially dismissed and even ridiculed, Mitchell went on to win the 1978 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his idea that a current of protons constantly flows into the cell as the cell vigorously pumps them back out, and that this is the driving force behind key cellular processes.
Protons flow in because they’re diffusing from an area of high concentration (outside the cell) to an area of low concentration (inside). There are fewer than 100 free protons inside a bacterium at a time, while a similar volume of the surrounding water has tens of thousands. The cell maintains this state with machines called electron transport chains that pump out thousands of protons per second. As protons are pumped out, thousands more flow in, drawn by the net negative electric charge and the general tendency for entropy to rise as particles (in this case, protons) spread out in space ever more evenly. Cells have rigged up all kinds of molecular machines that, like water mills on rivers, take advantage of proton currents coming into the cell.
“It boggles the normal human understanding of how things work,” Manson said. “How can you have thousands and thousands of protons coming into the cell every second and still have only a few dozen inside the cell? Because they bind to something, they get pumped out again. The equilibria are so incredibly fast.”

I would be impressed if some extremely creative molecular craftsman had discovered this phenomenon and created this system to take advantage of it. But it’s truly bonkers that it (and every other biological Rube Goldberg machine on Earth, up until human beings came along and started messing around on purpose) is the result of millennia of random chance and mutation.

Link via the Read Max newsletter, which I happily pay for.

Item 2: a list

Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1998, ranked:

  1. Tubthumping - Chumbawamba
  2. Semi-Charmed Life - Third Eye Blind
  3. You’re Still the One - Shania Twain
  4. Foolish Games / You Were Meant for Me - Jewel
  5. Gone till November - Wyclef Jean
  6. Crush - Jennifer Paige
  7. All for You - Sister Hazel
  8. Dangerous - Busta Rhymes
  9. Make ‘Em Say Uhh! - Master P featuring Fiend, Silkk the Shocker, Mia X and Mystikal
  10. One Week - Barenaked Ladies
  11. My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion
  12. Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are) - Pras Michel featuring Ol' Dirty Bastard and Mýa
  13. Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) - Backstreet Boys
  14. Turn It Up (Remix) / Fire It Up - Busta Rhymes
  15. Cruel Summer - Ace of Base
  16. How Do I Live - LeAnn Rimes
  17. Money, Power & Respect - The Lox featuring DMX and Lil' Kim
  18. The Boy is Mine - Brandy and Monica
  19. How’s It Going to Be - Third Eye Blind
  20. I Want You Back - NSYNC
  21. Are You Jimmy Ray? - Jimmy Ray
  22. Adia - Sarah McLachlan
  23. This Kiss - Faith Hill
  24. All My Life - K-Ci & JoJo
  25. You Make Me Wanna - Usher
  26. I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing - Aerosmith
  27. Quit Playing Games (With My Heart) - Backstreet Boys
  28. I Got the Hook Up - Master P feat. Sons of Funk
  29. Bitter Sweet Symphony - The Verve
  30. My All - Mariah Carey
  31. No, No, No - Destiny’s Child
  32. Together Again - Janet Jackson
  33. Feel So Good - Mase
  34. The First Night - Monica
  35. Do for Love - 2Pac feat. Eric Williams
  36. I Don’t Want to Wait - Paula Cole
  37. Show Me Love - Robyn
  38. Sex and Candy - Marcy Playground
  39. Gettin’ Jiggy wit It - Will Smith
  40. I Do - Lisa Loeb
  41. When the Lights Go Out - Five
  42. Nice & Slow - Usher
  43. Still Not a Player - Big Pun feat. Joe
  44. Frozen - Madonna
  45. Body Bumpin' (Yippie-Yi-Yo) - Public Announcement
  46. Never Ever - All Saints
  47. Make It Hot - Nicole featuring Missy Elliott and Mocha
  48. What You Want - Mase feat. Total
  49. Sock It 2 Me - Missy Elliott featuring Da Brat
  50. How Deep Is Your Love - Dru Hill feat. Redman
  51. Time After Time - INOJ
  52. Ray of Light - Madonna
  53. The One I Gave My Heart To - Aaliyah
  54. Too Close - Next
  55. My Way - Usher
  56. Truly Madly Deeply - Savage Garden
  57. The Mummers’ Dance - Loreena McKennitt
  58. A Rose Is Still a Rose - Aretha Franklin
  59. Kiss the Rain - Billie Myers
  60. Swing My Way - K.P. & Envyi
  61. Father - LL Cool J
  62. Daydreamin’ - Tatyana Ali
  63. My Body - LSG
  64. Friend of Mine - Kelly Price
  65. Let’s Ride - Montell Jordan featuring Master P and Silkk the Shocker
  66. Spice Up Your Life - Spice Girls
  67. Nobody's Supposed to Be Here - Deborah Cox
  68. Touch It - Monifah
  69. Thinkin’ Bout It - Gerald Levert
  70. Butta Love - Next
  71. Lookin’ at Me - Mase feat. Puff Daddy
  72. The Party Continues - JD feat. Da Brat
  73. All Cried Out - Allure
  74. A Song for Mama - Boyz II Men
  75. Westside - TQ
  76. Romeo and Juliet - Sylk-E. Fyne featuring Chill
  77. Looking Through Your Eyes - LeAnn Rimes
  78. My Love Is the Shhh! - Somethin' for the People featuring Trina & Tamara
  79. Too Much - Spice Girls
  80. 4 Seasons Of Loneliness - Boyz II Men
  81. I Still Love You - Next
  82. Because of You - 98 Degrees
  83. Lately - Divine
  84. We're Not Making Love No More - Dru Hill
  85. They Don’t Know - Jon B.
  86. I Get Lonely - Janet Jackson featuring Blackstreet
  87. I Will Come to You - Hanson
  88. It’s All About Me - Mýa and Sisqo
  89. Love You Down - ONOJ
  90. Raise the Roof - Luke feat. No Good But So Good
  91. Victory - Puff Daddy & the Family featuring The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes
  92. Deja Vu (Uptown Baby) - Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz
  93. I Don’t Ever Want to See You Again - Uncle Sam
  94. The Arms of the One Who Loves You - Xscape
  95. Say It - Voices of Theory
  96. I’ll Be - Edwin McCain
  97. Candle in the Wind 1997 / Something About the Way You Look Tonight - Elton John
  98. Heaven - Nu Flavor
  99. Come With Me - Puff Daddy feat. Jimmy Page
  100. Been Around the World - Puff Daddy featuring The Notorious B.I.G. and Mase

Item 3: a media recommendation

Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee) (1999!)

Item 4: word of the week

Paratactic
Came up with an idea for this new political party, the Paratactics, whose entire ethos is that nothing matters. The motto will be "theres actually zero difference between good & bad things".
Oh wait I'm being told that there's already a party like that.

Item 5: an image

The Coronation of King George V, 1911 - Sir John Benjamin Stone

See ya!

Thanks for reading. Please make sure you listen to all those songs and let me know if you agree with my ranking. See you in a couple of weeks!

Published by:

Jacob Wolman

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