I usually have no beef whatsoever with the background information RadioLab uses to set the stage for a story. But Watson and Crick did not discover the structure of DNA. Rosalind Franklin did, then we research partners stole her research and accepted the Nobel price after she died from radiation poisoning.
More information: http://takebackhalloween.org/rosalind-franklin/

I was a little surprised by this segment. RadioLab's science reporting always gives the impression of being thorough and trustworthy, allowing those of us in the audience to relax and enjoy being educated. I think this segment is the first I've heard on RadioLab on a topic in which I have some actual expertise--I work with fungal ribosomal DNA and RNA. For that reason, it's the first time I've been aware of RadioLab getting something major fundamentally wrong. Ribosomes are not translated; they're not made of proteins. Ribosomes are RNA structures; along with mRNA, tRNA, and a few others, rRNA (ribosomal RNA) is one of the major places RNA appears in the cell. There are some ribosomal proteins, also, but there's no good reason to think that those proteins are ancestral, as opposed to derived, characters of the ribosome.
I've heard from others in the sciences that whenever they hear reporters discussing their pet subjects, they're shocked at the basic errors being made. This is the first time I've experienced that. I'm a little surprised in came from RadioLab!

I was a little surprised by this segment. RadioLab's science reporting always gives the impression of being thorough and trustworthy, allowing those of us in the audience to relax and enjoy being educated. I think this segment is the first I've heard on RadioLab on a topic in which I have some actual expertise--I work with fungal ribosomal DNA and RNA. For that reason, it's the first time I've been aware of RadioLab getting something major fundamentally wrong. Ribosomes are not translated; they're not made of proteins. Ribosomes are RNA structures; along with mRNA, tRNA, and a few others, rRNA (ribosomal RNA) is one of the major places RNA appears in the cell.
I've heard from others in the sciences that whenever they hear reporters discussing their pet subjects, they're shocked at the basic errors being made. This is the first time I've experienced that. I'm a little surprised in came from RadioLab!

I just listened to the "Translations" episode and loved it. The ending of the RNA segment mentioned the Bible, Translations and the Bible could be an entire episode of its own! Think about the word "the"... It's a trivial word really but think of the tremendous impact a mistranslation of that word would have, specifically within the first sentence of the Bible. What if the word "the" was mistranslated and should have been "a"? "In a begining God created the heavens and the Earth..." One simple article could change the entire meaning of the Bible!

First, this whole episode was awesome! Thanks for taking the time to look at the philosophy language; Wittgenstein would be proud.

Second, ending it on a theory of origins note...brilliant!

This depicts, to some extent, the chicken and egg relationship between RNA and the ribosome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2XOhgRJVb4