Mrs. Kelly's Protein Sleeve

This year I am taking Biology, and I became especially interested in protein synthesis (the making of proteins).  And who wouldn't be?  (That's a rhetoric question, by the way.)  Proteins are made by two processes, translation and transcription.  In translation, an RNA strand (messanger RNA, or mRNA) bonds to one side of an unwound portion of DNA, the part that codes for the protein.  Next, the mRNA travels out of the nucleus and into a ribosome where tRNA -- a chain of three nucleotide bases with an amino acid on the end -- bond to it (the mRNA).  These amino acids then bond to each other, at which point they disconnect from the tRNA (which go back to pick up another amino acid specific to them).  After this has happened for a while the result is a long chain of amino acids.  This chain folds up into a specific shape, and there you have it, a protein!

Of course, simply learning this and drawing diagrams is not enough.  No, something this cool needs to be recorded for posterity.  So, for Christmas, I made my wonderful Biology teacher a knitted coffee cup sleeve with a model of protein synthesis on it (see the pictures below)!  Isn't it cool?  (Again, this is a rhetorical question - of course it's cool! ;))  I have never before considered myself a science nerd, but this project might just change that. :)

A portion of the DNA unwinds.

Transcription:  a strand of mRNA bonds to one strand of the DNA helix.

Translation:  the tRNA bonds to the mRNA, creating a chain of amino acids.

The amino acids fold into a specific shape and voila:  a finished protein!

The complete (and color-coded) process of protein synthesis (probably simplified, but what I learned in Biology)!  The little "X"s represent the nucleotide bases Adenine (yellow), Thymine (brown), Cytosine (blue), Guanine (green), and Uracil (tan).  The DNA is purple, t/mRNA is blue, the ribosome is red, and the amino acids and protein are represented by the bright, variegated yarn (blue, green, pink, and yellow).