The Energetics of Protein Synthesis

Building proteins is the single most energetically expensive task your body performs every second.

It is a microscopic assembly line where your DNA instructions finally come to life.

Little L-shaped molecules called tRNAs act like specialized adapters, grabbing specific

amino acids and rushing them to the ribosome. This molecular machine reads the genetic

code and stitches the pieces together, burning four high-energy bonds for every single link in the

chain. It is so complex that most antibiotics actually work simply by jamming the gears

of bacterial ribosomes, shutting down their factories while yours keep running perfectly.