Langevin dynamics on a rugged funnel energy landscape
Protein folding is visualized as diffusion down a funnel-shaped energy landscape. Native state is the global minimum at the bottom; misfolding traps are local minima on the rugged landscape walls. Temperature (thermal noise) determines the probability of escaping traps via Kramers' rate ∝ exp(−ΔE/kT). Aggregation diseases like Alzheimer's arise when proteins become trapped in misfolded states.