I have long been disgruntled by that popular video from Harvard and XVIVO — you know the one I’m talking about, the computer animation of a kinesin walking along a microtubule, carrying a massive vesicle. I wouldn’t use it in my classes because it’s too slick and well-done, and presents a too persuasive view of how the cell works. Where is the constant jostling by water molecules? Where is the stutter in a motion driven stochastically by molecular interactions? Where are all the other proteins competing for binding? It’s rigged to make the motion look so purposeful, which is why that video is so popular among creationists.

I’ve been huffy about it for over a decade, but no one cares, no one listens. But maybe you’ll listen now: Eric Betzig, winner of the chemistry Nobel in 2014, is saying exactly the same thing.

There is a place for simplified illustrations of biological processes. I use them all the time, to get across the specific interactions I’m trying to explain. But there is no place for hyper-detailed animations that portray the interior of a cell as a vast cavernous space with a scattering of robots carrying out missions along precisely engineered pathways.