No longer lost in translation: Biochemists watch gene expression in real time

Biochemists have made a live-cell movie of RNA translation, the fundamental cellular process by which a ribosome decodes a protein. Sixty years after Francis Crick first described it, these scientists have illuminated, in a single living cell, this final step of gene expression. Their tools: some clever protein engineering, and a custom-built microscope that can show single-RNA translation with nanoscale precision.