291 | Venki Ramakrishnan on the Biology of Death and Aging

599.754 - 636.102 Venki Ramakrishnan

So that was the beginning of genetics, of gene-encoded protein synthesis. And it's an enormous machine. It was discovered in the 50s, but a human ribosome has about half a million atoms. And so even though it was discovered in the 50s and then people started to figure out what it was made off and what it did, the exact mechanism, how it actually worked remained a mystery for a long time.