[af78]

A rate of 10 000 (ten thousand) RPM is mentioned in the video for certain bacteria. My background is in mechanical engineering, does RPM stand for revolutions per minute here? Sounds unbelievably fast for biochemical processes.

[jcims]

Yep

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicase

The wild thing is that it doesn't have a 'gas tank' of ATP to drive the reaction, it goes this fast while being fueled one molecule at a time from the environment.

Where does the ATP come from?

Buckle up my mechanical engineer friend - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT5AXGS1aL8

I've watched that video a hundred times and it still gives me chills haha.

[rolph]

the reactant molecules themselves, are primed with an ATP like a one use capacitor, it provides threshold energy, and is "consumed" as part of the reaction.

[jinnko]

I remember studying this in detail 30 years ago. To watch that whole process in a video now it's mind blowing. Thank you.

[timschmidt]

I find that a good rule is that the smaller the system, the faster the interactions.

Also you may be interested in flagellar motors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPSm9gJkPxU