Storing genetic material as DNA or RNA is all well and good for life on Earth, but it would be entirely pointless if we couldn't do anything with it. To use our genetic blueprints, all organisms need to translate the message from their nucleic acid forms into protein, which then become the building blocks that make up each organism. Because this is such a critical part of life, ribosomes—the machinery responsible for the translation of RNA into protein—are fairly conserved across all living things. ...read more read less