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Movie Gallery - Light Interactions

All movies and images were made using VMD. Download movie files via the movie file type (.mpg, .mov) after the movie title (right-click in Windows; control-click on Macs). To view original movie files, you may need to try the Quicktime or VLC movie players. You may wish to also visit TCBG's YouTube movie gallery to view science movies. All movies are copyrighted by TCBG.

	Bacteria's Solar Power Converter (.mpg, 18.4M)
	The movie shows a multi-protein machine known as the photosynthetic chromatophore as it is found in purple bacteria. Protein complexes (shown in green, blue and red) capture light and transfer it to reaction center proteins (shown in red). The chromatophore is responsible for absorbing sunlight and converting the absorbed energy into a form that the bacterial cell can use to grow.
	Photosynthetic Membrane Simulation (.mov, 28.2M)
	An atomic force microscopy image of a photosynthetic membrane in the purple bacterium Rps. photometricum was used to re-construct an all-atom model of part of the photosynthetic membrane. The proteins crowded together in the membrane are the peripheral light harvesting complexes (colored green in the simulation), and the light-harvesting/reaction center complexes (colored blue and red). These proteins are responsible for absorbing sunlight and initiating the process by which the absorbed light energy is converted into chemical energy to be used by the bacterium.
	A Bacterial Solar Battery (.mpg, 7.2M)
	In some photosynthetic bacteria, spheres smaller than 1/10,000 of a millimeter harvest sunlight to produce energy. Light-harvesting protein complexes (shown in green and red) capture light and transfer it to a reaction center protein (shown in blue) that converts light into energy for the cell. Understanding these processes may inform how mankind can harvest sunlight for energy better in the future.
	Light Harvesting by Chlorophyll (.avi, 1M)
	Membranes in cells display many geometries: flat, curved, or even bubbles. Some of these structures are constructed by proteins within the membranes. The movie shows a photosynthetic light-harvesting protein (in blue, green, red) bending a membrane (in purple and yellow) into a curved shape (bronze area shows curve).