This page is going to be getting updated/replaced over the next few weeks. When I initially wrote the page, I had several other ideas of how things would be branching off this ‘starter’ page. Since there has been limited interaction with the page, I will be replacing it with a more coherent and flowing page.

So I’ve realized that I’ve been a little slow on adding in small articles for the all-science portion of the site. Part of my problem has been either trying to draw my own figures (I’ve updated my chembiodraw license, so I’m using that software currently), and trying to make sure that when I’m writing the post–it isn’t written with all scientific jargon.

So the posts under the all-science portions will probably be bouncing around different aspects of cellular and molecular biology. The first few will be just a brief introduction to different aspects (such as the central dogma of biology, the tree of life, difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells), before going on to more complex topics (such as the actual steps within the central dogma of biology–transcription and translation, in addition to DNA replication).

So what is the central dogma of biology? Basically it describes the three different levels (and molecules) that make up all life.

It basically states that within the cell, the genetic code for the organism is encoded within the DNA (though there are some exceptions and they will be getting their own posts later), which is located within the nucleus of the cell. The cell will transcribe certain portions of the DNA into RNA through a process called transcription (which also happens within the nucleus of the cell). Once the RNA molecule has been properly processed, it will be moved from the nucleus to the cytosplasm of cell where it will be translated into a peptide sequence of amino acids through the help of ribosomal organelles.

These amino acid changes are then folded into a multitude of complex structures forming the numerous different proteins that are responsible for the day to day activities of the cell.

So this is the basic foundation of biology, and one way to remember DNA-RNA-protein would be to consider DNA to be the blueprint of the cell, RNA is the carpenter, and the protein is the final product.