Molecular wheels

I find it amazing that the “wheel” is a meme that exists down to the molecular level, and humans discovered and started using ~ 5500 years ago. It’s where maths and motion meet. I wonder what needed to happen for humans to actualise the wheel in macro scale form.

It’s weird to imagine that the wheel as a meme existed in our world, in bacteria possibly inside us, for all those years before we ‘discovered’ its form and started using it on the macro level. Apart from the dung beetle and tumbleweed, the wheel doesn’t actually exist in any place in nature in a form we can see with our bare eyes.

What needed to happen for that discovery and manifestation of the wheel to come into human use?

Watch this video of a bacterial flagellum for context :)

The Bacterial Flagellum is powered by the flow of protons across the cell membrane and driven by a rotating protein engine. It is an enormous protein mega-complex that can reach incredibly high RPMs. #biology #cellbiology #flagellum #education #biologyanimation