Bret Weinstein

And what we say is that the...

The amino acid sequence is specified by the genome in three-letter sequences, right?

Codons.

Each three letters specifies a particular amino acid that gets tacked on.

You get a sequence of amino acids that then collapse into whatever they're going to be, whether it's an enzyme or a structure based on little electromagnetic signals.

affinities that they have, little side chains that have a positive or a negative charge that attract each other.

So basically these machines assemble themselves by folding in very complex ways that then causes them to interact with the molecules around them.

in very specific ways.

Ways that greatly reduce the energy necessary and make the reactions much more likely to happen.

That's why we call it a catalyst.

But really the way to think of it is a little molecular machine.

So, we say the way evolution works is random changes happen to the DNA because DNA is imperfectly copied or is impacted by radiation, which will eliminate a letter in the DNA.

And then that letter will get replaced by a different letter.

There are only four choices.

But some fraction of the time, you get a three-letter combination that specifies a new amino acid

Almost all of the time, that will make the little molecular machine worse or break it altogether.

Occasionally, it will leave the machine functional in a way that's somewhat better than the previous one.

And then evolution will collect all of those advances.

And that's how evolution works.

That's the story we typically tell.