Genes and proteins

“We now know that the main purpose of genes is to store the recipe for making proteins. It is proteins that do almost every chemical, structural and regulatory thing that is done in the body: . . . Every single protein in the body is made from a gene by a translation of the genetic code. The same is not quite true in reverse: there are genes, which are never translated into protein, such as the ribosomal-RNA gene of chromosome 1, but even that is involved in making other proteins. Garrod’s [1902] conjecture is basically correct: what we inherit from our parents is a gigantic list of recipes for making proteins and for making protein-making machines – and little more” (Ridley, 40).