Beautiful DNA explainer video

This animated short was made by Territory Studio for the BBC. Even if you feel like you have a pretty good hold on what deoxyribonucleic acid is and how it works, you will still appreciate this video. It might not add greatly to your depth of understanding, but it will please your eyes, tickle your brain, and remind you about the many wonders of the double helix.

As Will Samuel, lead designer and animator on the project explains "the approach taken wasn’t just to look into a scientific future. “We needed to find a graphic style to communicate the beauty and intricacy of DNA. We wanted to create nostalgia; taking the audience back to the days of textbook diagrams and old science documentaries" The animation and sequences seem very up-to-date, but it does have a definite textbook feel, which I really enjoyed.

Among his inspirations Samuel mentioned two classics that practically all geeks are familiar with: Carl Sagan’s Cosmos and IBM’s/Charles and Ray Eames’ Powers of Ten.




Three minutes is a short time to explore a subject where most doctorates only scratch the surface, so writer Andrew S. Walsh teamed up with molecular biologist Dr Matthew Adams to distil the script down to the most fundamental elements required to understand not only DNA’s form and function but how our understanding of these discoveries has affected the wider world. While this length may feel restrictive, the team found that this limitation acted as a lens, focusing the piece on the essentials. They left out pretty much all the details — there is barely and A, T, G or C in sight — but chose to leave in big picture ideas, such has the effect of DNA on members of a species, as well as the similarities from one species to another.

The video is just a chance for people to dip their toe in the water. It touches on what we know about DNA, what we can do it with, what we don’t know, and how DNA can be manipulated. Everything stops there, though — at that point it’s up to you to take inspiration from the video to learn more on your own. The video even ends by saying “… but we still have much to learn,” which is exactly what most of us will feel inspired to do after watching it.