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Venki Ramakrishnan on ribosomes

Jim Al-Khalili talks to Nobel Prize-winner and president of the Royal Society Venki Ramakrishnan.

All the information that's needed for life is written in our DNA. But how do we get from DNA code to biological reality? That's the job of the ribosomes - those clever molecular machines that are found in every living cell. And in 2008 Venki Ramakrishnan was awarded the Nobel Prize for determining their structure. Jim talks to Venki about the frantic race to crack the structure of the ribosome, probably the most important biological molecule after DNA; why he thinks the Nobel Prize is a terrible thing for science; and his new job as President of the Royal Society.

Producer: Anna Buckley.

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Tue 8 Mar 2016 21:30

Broadcasts

  • Tue 8 Mar 2016 09:00
  • Tue 8 Mar 2016 21:30

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