Excellant Animation of How Biology Works

[BillT]

This shows the "Central Dogma" of molecular biology in action with a good relative scaling of the parts and at "Real" time.

http://new.labroots.com/video/id/732

The "Central Dogma" is that:

DNA encodes information in its Nucleotide sequence (A, T, C, G in various orders)
The DNA sequence is used to make a corresponding RNA sequence (A, U, C, G in a corresponding order)
This is called transcription and is done by RNA polymerase enzymes.
The RNA sequences is used to direct the assembly of whatever protein the code is directing it to make.
The is called translation and is done by the ribosomes.

Proteins do most of the work in the cells, enzymes (to control chemical reactions), structural elements (to make a cell long or branchy or flat or whatever), contractile elements (actin and myson in muscles), ion channels (so the nervous system can function), hormones, receptors (which react to hormones and nerve cell transmitters), egg yolk has a lot of protein as food for the developing embryo.

It nice for me to see how fast (or in this case slow) these things are going.

The small balls are atoms, the physical building blocks that are the basis of chemistry and biochemistry.

Life is like a car (a cell) made of chemical nano-machines (proteins and nucleic acids) which it makes itself, and the driver is the DNA's instructions.

[Mugwump]

Thanks a well done explanation....and the link...

[PaulineMi]

That was an interesting link. Fascinating stuff.