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.

Watch this film on YouTube ↗

Visual credits

32 sources

Visual sources include third-party material incorporated into custom animations. License information is reproduced from source records; an unrecorded license does not mean a work is public domain.

  • Scientific image

    Creator credit under review

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

  • 50S-subunit of the ribosome 3CC2

    Yikrazuul

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

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

    Creator credit under review

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

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

    Soumyajits42

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

  • Oak tree Sunol Regional Wilderness California 2023 dllu

    Daniel Lu ( User:dllu )

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

  • Diatom of La Tembladera wetland

    Priscila Jackeline Arias Ordóñez

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

  • Humans Hand

    Jkkklll m

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

  • TRNA-Phe yeast 1ehz

    Yikrazuul

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

    OpenStax (Rice University)

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

  • Scientific image

    Creator credit under review

    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)

    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

    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

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

  • Scientific figure · source page 5

    Radakovic et al., PNAS

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

    Editorial use; no open license asserted.

  • Scientific image

    Creator credit under review

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

  • Scientific figure · source page 10

    Singh, Powner and colleagues, Nature

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

    Editorial use; no open license asserted.

  • Scientific figure · source page 4

    Reusswig, Balasubramanian, Richert (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2024)

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

  • Marshall Nirenberg performing experiment

    MacVicar, N. - National Institutes of Health

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

  • Scientific image

    Creator credit under review

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

  • Murchison meteorite

    Art Bromage

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

  • Thermus aquaticus

    Creator credit under review

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

  • False Parasol mushroom in Kings Forest, Suffolk

    Sophie Curtis

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

  • Close-up of Emerging Fern Frond in Spring

    Girela770

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

  • Ardea herodias -Illinois, USA -flying-8

    PhotoBobil

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

  • Tropical Fish Swimming Underwater (46256605951)

    Jernej Furman from Maribor, Slovenia

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

  • viewport screenshot

    Creator credit under review

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

  • viewport screenshot

    Creator credit under review

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

  • Difference DNA RNA-EN

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

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

  • Components of DNA replication in Archaea compared to Bacteria and Eukaryotes (Figure 1)

    Raymann K, Brochier-Armanet C, Gribaldo S

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

  • graphic file with name fx1.jpg

    Creator credit under review

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

  • Scientific figure · source page 3

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

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

    Editorial use; no open license asserted.

  • Scientific figure · source page 5

    Creator credit under review

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

    Editorial use; no open license asserted.

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

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 →