I can’t think of a better post to serve as my 300th. After a month and a half of teaching myself Autodesk Maya, I present my best animation yet, although it must’ve been by accident. I have two versions (two different file formats). But first, some background.

Many bacteria have developed strategies to grow and thrive within environments absent of oxygen. Instead of using oxygen to “breathe”, bacteria use alternative molecules (alternative electron acceptors) to dump the waste product from respiration (the electron). These molecules can range from bacterium to bacterium. Some of the most common alternative electron acceptors include nitrate, nitrite, and iron. Interestingly, these are some of the most prevalent land pollutants and our knowledge of the types of bacteria that can thrive under these conditions continues to grow. One of the most interesting observations, in my opinion, is the process of extracellular electron transfer, or EET. During EET, the bacteria with this property have devised a method to transfer their waste to their environment without having to actually import potentially dangerous compounds into the cell. Through a elaborate network of specialized proteins able to taxi electrons called cytochromes, bacteria like Geobacter and Shewanella are able to thrive within what we would consider extreme environments.

I’m only uploading one file due to file size, but if anyone is interested in the image sequence in .png to create their own animation with a background image, please feel free to let me know. So, here it is: Enjoy!

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