DNA Is a Recipe

You think your body just KNOWS how to grow The truth is sweeter There's a recipe card

A really old one A really tiny one Folded up Inside every single cell you've got

Four letters That's the whole alphabet A T G C

That's it A recipe in four letters Written out a billion lines long Tucked inside every single cell

DNA is a RECIPE DNA is a RECIPE A book of instructions For everything you are

DNA is a RECIPE DNA is a RECIPE And the recipe is YOU And the building never stops

Step one — TRANSCRIPTION The cookbook stays in the nucleus So a copier shows up Makes a single-page copy

That copy is RNA A xerox of one recipe One protein One job

Step two — TRANSLATION The copy walks out of the nucleus Floats into the cytoplasm Lands on a ribosome — RY-bo-some!

The ribosome reads three letters Picks an ingredient Reads three more Picks another

Three letters at a time That's a CODON Each codon names an amino acid The ribosome stacks them in order

Stack — stack — stack The chain folds itself up A protein! A working machine!

DNA is a RECIPE DNA is a RECIPE RNA is the photocopy The ribosome is the BUILDER

DNA is a RECIPE DNA is a RECIPE And the recipe is YOU And the building never stops

Eye color — protein Hair color — protein Spit that breaks down starch — protein The thing that makes you tall — protein

It's all just stacking Amino acids In an order A four-letter book wrote down

You are a process You are a recipe A recipe being built Right now

(One letter wrong — the stack goes wrong — the protein folds funny) (Sometimes that's a sickness) (Sometimes that's a superpower) (Sometimes nobody notices at all)

DNA — RNA — protein DNA — RNA — protein Cookbook — copy — BUILDER Cookbook — copy — BUILDER

Reading right now Reading in your toes Reading in your eyes Reading in your nose