Most people misunderstand the Central Dogma.
In school, perhaps you were taught it as “DNA → RNA → protein.” But that’s a massive oversimplification.
Francis Crick’s real "Central Dogma" was about what *cannot* happen in a cell. Let’s break it down. 🧵
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- Some fun numbers about the "speeds" of cells: 1. Sugar molecules move at ~250 mph in a cell, about 2x the speed of a Cessna 172 plane. 2. Every protein is hit by ten trillion water molecules each second. 3. ATP synthase (which makes ATP) spins around 8,040 times per minute.
- A friendly reminder that the Central Dogma is NOT "DNA -> RNA -> protein." All that Francis Crick *actually* said was: “Once information has got into a protein it can’t get out again.” This negative statement — namely, that some transfers of information seem to be impossible —
- We've been working on this resource for months: A VISUAL GUIDE TO GENOME EDITORS. Learn how tools like Cas9, Cas13, prime editors, and Bridge editors work - with diagrams! We hope this becomes a valuable resource for the biology community and students.
- Protein designers have long dreamed of building new enzymes from scratch. Unfortunately, enzymes are highly dynamic; they move around a lot and have intermediate states that are difficult to design computationally. But a recent paper from David Baker’s group at the Institute
- The micropipette—that ubiquitous tool found in laboratories around the world—was invented by a 32-year-old German postdoc in 1957 after a particularly productive two-day tantrum. That first device, made by Heinrich Schnitger, had “all the essential features of the modern
- Sebastian Cocioba (@ATinyGreenCell) built a laboratory in his home using machines bought off eBay. His dream is to design flowers. He's already engineered air-purifying houseplants and helped make the world’s first genetically modified Olympic mascot. His story, in photos...
- Mitochondria are alive. A swelling tide of evidence suggests they are not just organelles, but rather their own life forms. The precise definition of “life” has been debated since the inception of biology, but molecular biologists tend to focus on characteristics like
- In 2000, a physicist made bacteria blink. He did so by stitching together individual pieces of DNA to build a "genetic circuit," called the repressilator. We recently published an interactive article explaining how the repressilator works, and how one can tune its dynamics. 🧵
- The first "modern" micropipette was made by a German postdoc, named Heinrich Schnitger, in just 2 days in 1957. Schnitger's pipette had a spring-loaded piston, a second spring to dispense residual liquid, and a plastic tip. Eppendorf quickly licensed his invention. Read more 🔻
- Green fluorescent protein (GFP) is one of the most ubiquitous tools used in biology research. It was discovered by Osamu Shimomura, a Japanese marine biologist, in 1961. While editing an article about GFP's history, we learned a lot about this man. Like how...🧵
- In 30 minutes, we're wrapping up our final Issue for 2024. In the last 12 months, we launched this magazine, built a team of 6, printed our first book, and published more than 100,000 words about biotech and scientific progress. Thank you for following our journey!
- Nearly everything in a cell happens by chance encounters among molecules. It is diffusion that dictates how quickly enzymes find substrates, how quickly signaling molecules reach receptors, and how often ribosomes collide with mRNAs. But what sets a molecule's diffusion rate?
- Is the cell a computer? Here's what Michael Elowitz ( @ElowitzLab ) had to say in a prior interview: "The computer analogy is a double-edged sword. The analogy is useful in the sense that a cell is a programmable device that can do many different things. And the closest thing


















