How Bacteria Evolved Rotary Motors | Michael Manson

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How do bacteria power one of the most sophisticated molecular machines in nature? In this episode, we speak with Dr. Michael Manson, one of the pioneers of bacterial motility research, whose nearly 50-year career has helped uncover how the bacterial flagellar motor works. From the first experiments proving that bacterial flagella rotate to the latest breakthroughs in cryo-EM and single-molecule biology, Manson tells the story of how scientists finally solved the mechanism behind a real working biological motor. We explore how bacteria move through chemotaxis using a biased random walk, why E. coli alternates between running and tumbling, and how individual molecules can control the…