Drew Endy

I love it.

And then the thing that makes proteins, the ribosome—

This molecular machine that makes proteins from genetic instructions, that's going to be about as tall as a person.

And then the DNA, the inside cells is DNA, the genome, the genetic instructions.

That DNA for our cell is going to go back and forth across the cell over a thousand times.

If the building's 100 meters long...

The DNA is going to be kilometers long, and it's going to be coiled up and wrapped up and packed inside the cell.

And then another thing that shows up is if you're inside a cell in this building, the building's going to be packed maybe 20% to 40% of stuff.

Wow.

It's like a hoarder of molecules.

Imagine a bookstore that's 50% full of books almost, and you could just barely move through it.

All right.

Now, there's one more wrinkle that blows my mind.

The molecules inside the cell are moving.

They're not fixed in one position, and they're moving spontaneously automatically.

because the molecules are free to move due to the energy of the system.

And so that protein that's a little basketball in this big building is moving so fast

it's able to go through the entire building within a second.

And so that's what's incredibly interesting to me when we start to think about how are these systems working?

How are these cells making other cells?