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All episodes/Episode 3.3

Episode 3.3 · 35 min

The Genetic Code

How cells translate genetic information into proteins, why RNA sits at the heart of the ribosome, and what today’s shared genetic code reveals about its origins.

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Visual credits

32 sources

Sources and credits for imagery used in this film, including material incorporated into explanatory animations.

  • Scientific image

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • 50S-subunit of the ribosome 3CC2

    Yikrazuul

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Press release: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009 - NobelPrize.org viewport screenshot

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Calcium (Carbonate) Precipitation By Ureolytic Bacteria under Phase Contrast Microscope

    Soumyajits42

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Oak tree Sunol Regional Wilderness California 2023 dllu

    Daniel Lu ( User:dllu )

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Diatom of La Tembladera wetland

    Priscila Jackeline Arias Ordóñez

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Humans Hand

    Jkkklll m

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  • TRNA-Phe yeast 1ehz

    Yikrazuul

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  • Scheme of transfer RNA (tRNA) charged with an amino acid

    OpenStax (Rice University)

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Scientific image

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Human Oxy-Hemoglobin Protein

    PDB code 2DN1 1.25 a resolution crystal structures of human haemoglobin in the oxy, deoxy and carbonmonoxy forms. Park, S.-Y., Yokoyama, T., Shibayama, N., Shiro, Y., Tame, J.R. (2006) J Mol Biol 360: 690-701 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2006.05.036 Image created using JSmol (Javascript)

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • PDB 4pep EBI

    Jawahar Swaminathan and MSD staff at the European Bioinformatics Institute

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Woven and lamellar bone. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

    Nazir M. Khan, Kari B. Clifton, Joseph Lorenzo, Marc F. Hansen and Hicham Drissi

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Scientific figure · source page 5

    Radakovic et al., PNAS

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  • Thioester-mediated RNA aminoacylation and peptidyl-RNA synthesis in water — Figure 1

    Jyoti Singh, Benjamin Thoma, Daniel Whitaker, Max Satterly Webley, Yuan Yao, Matthew W. Powner

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  • Scientific figure · source page 10

    Singh, Powner and colleagues, Nature

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Ribosome-Free Translation up to Pentapeptides via Template Walk on RNA Sequences — Figure 2 and Scheme 1

    Sabrina G. Reußwig and Clemens Richert

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Marshall Nirenberg performing experiment

    MacVicar, N. - National Institutes of Health

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  • Scientific image

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  • Murchison meteorite

    Art Bromage

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  • Thermus aquaticus

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  • False Parasol mushroom in Kings Forest, Suffolk

    Sophie Curtis

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  • Close-up of Emerging Fern Frond in Spring

    Girela770

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  • Ardea herodias -Illinois, USA -flying-8

    PhotoBobil

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  • Tropical Fish Swimming Underwater (46256605951)

    Jernej Furman from Maribor, Slovenia

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  • viewport screenshot

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  • viewport screenshot

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  • Difference DNA RNA-EN

    File:Difference DNA RNA-DE.svg : Sponk / *translation: Sponk

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  • Components of DNA replication across Bacteria, Archaea and Eukaryotes — Figure 1A

    Kasie Raymann, Patrick Forterre, Céline Brochier-Armanet and Simonetta Gribaldo

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Universal paralogs provide a window into evolution before the last universal common ancestor — graphical abstract

    Aaron D. Goldman, Gregory P. Fournier and Betül Kaçar

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

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  • Scientific figure · source page 3

    Iwabe et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

  • Universal paralogs provide a window into evolution before the last universal common ancestor — Figure 2A, ATP synthase

    Aaron D. Goldman, Gregory P. Fournier and Betül Kaçar

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    Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

Research references

Selected sources from the episode’s research and scientific figures.

  1. https://pdb101.rcsb.org/global-health/antimicrobial-resistance/drugs/antibiotics/protein-synthesis/ribosome/ribosome ↗
  2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26829/ ↗
  3. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5492144/ ↗
  4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Utils/wprintgc.cgi ↗
  5. https://astrobiology.com/2026/07/23/tryptophan-became-part-of-the-universal-genetic-code-post-luca/ ↗
  6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK6360/ ↗
  7. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12985370/ ↗
  8. https://pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/121 ↗
  9. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2783306/ ↗
  10. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2009/summary/ ↗
  11. https://www.rcsb.org/structure/4V5D ↗
  12. https://www.rcsb.org/structure/4V6F ↗
  13. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41570-024-00656-5 ↗
  14. https://knowledge.uchicago.edu/records/5y24g-jaj84 ↗
  15. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11514466/ ↗
  16. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202410317 ↗
  17. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkag404 ↗
  18. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09388-y ↗
  19. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2410311121 ↗
  20. https://websites.umich.edu/~zhanglab/clubPaper/01_31_2025.pdf ↗
  21. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41555552/ ↗
  22. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42308552/ ↗
  23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.09.071 ↗
  24. https://www.biorxiv.org/ ↗
  25. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0303264725002813 ↗

Music

  • Meditation From The Star Orion
    OctahedronMusic · Envato Elements
Footage and image usage

Credits and usage times retained from the published edition or its production credit record. Where present, times identify visual appearances, not documentary chapters. Source and licence corrections are listed in the visual credits above.

  • Custom animations and figures: From Cosmos to Civilization. Third-party material incorporated into animations is credited on the linked sources page.

How this film was made

Created and editorially directed by Anders Lunde using a custom production system developed over six months. AI assists research, drafting, programming, and visual production; I review and edit the material and make the final editorial decisions. Narration uses text-to-speech. Visuals combine custom-built scientific animations, AI-generated reconstructions, and credited scientific imagery.

Generated reconstructions illustrate scientific interpretations. They are distinct from photographs, specimens, and measured data.

More about the creator and production →