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Special | 2m 58s | Video has closed captioning.
Computer code is finicky. If one line, or if one character is off, then the whole program can go sideways. Genetic code isn't much different. In this episode, we see what happens if code gets deleted, put in the wrong place, or switched with other code.
Aired: 04/01/20
From:
(funky music) (Male rat mumbling) ♪ Mutant mutant super powered mutant ♪ (Male rat giggles) - What are you doing?
- I'm making myself into a ♪ Super powered mutant ♪ - Super powered?
- Venom spitting, stinger stinging (giggles).
- Look man, I don't know what you're mixing there but you are just gonna end up a puddle of hair.
- No, I'm going to change my DNI.
- Okay, well, good luck.
Wait did you mean DNA?
You're going to change your DNA?
- That's what I said.
- Do you know how hard it is to change DNA?
DNA is a tough code to crack.
The cell it's housed in has all kinds of fail safes to keep hackers out.
- [Male Rat] All right, hit me.
I'm plugged in and ready to break the code.
- I doubt it but okay.
DNA tells the body how to make the proteins that make us.
Each unit of code is three letters long but the last letter doesn't always matter.
Think of it like a silent E. Sometimes you need it to get the right word but not always.
That means you can change a letter in the code and still end up just like you are.
- [Male Rat] But it could change something, right?
- [Female Rat] Sure but you're not gonna get flashy changes that way.
- [Male Rat] Ooh, what about deleting a letter?
I bet that'll get flashy changes.
- [Female Rat] Oh, it will give you changes called a frameshift mutation, making all the codes wrong and creating chaos.
- Oh, sweet, frameshift mutation it is!
- [Female Rat] More like this.
- [Male Rat] Well, how'd the viper get its venom or the scorpion get its stinger or the baboon get its red butt?
(baboon farts) - [Female Rat] They probably got their powers the hard way, lots of small mutations over a long time.
Take the scorpion.
Its venom might've started out as a duplication code that doesn't really have a purpose and it's left to go wild.
So maybe it mutates again and produces a protein that is a little more toxic.
That could happen again and again until the venom is really nasty.
- That's exactly what I want.
- [Female Rat] Well, even if that kind of change was possible, it's something that only your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandkids would get to enjoy.
- Oh, sweet!
(upbeat jazz music)
The Gene.
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