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>> Sally: Happy Birthday Dude.

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>> Dude: Geez Sally.

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I can't believe you remembered!

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Can I open this now?

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>> Sally: Of course, I hope you like it.

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>> Dude: Sounds like it has parts!

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>> Sally: I know how much
you like to build things.

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>> Dude: I think I know what it is.

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Will I have to keep this here in the lab?

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>> Sally: Only if you want to.

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>> Dude: Awesome.

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It's an electronics building kit.

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>> Sally: It has all the parts to build
a bug that scoots around on the floor.

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The box says the red laser eyes
will flash when it hears a voice.

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Dude, do you like it?

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>> Dude: I do...I guess...but...well I thought
this might be the parts to build something real.

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You know, something living...like a real
bug with red eyes and legs that move.

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>> Sally: You thought the box had
parts for genetic programming?

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>> Dude: Yeah...that's what
I really want to try.

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If I do OK snapping these wires and lights
together, can I get a genetics kit next?

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>> Sally: I would love to give you that!

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But there is no snap-together version.

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Here let me show you the closest thing.

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You know that all living things are
programmed by their DNA, their genomes.

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And that DNA is made of four
kinds of nucleotides, G,A,T,C.

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But even when we know the order of
every nucleotide in the master program,

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we still don't completely
understand how the program works.

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So it's not easy to snap together a new
genetic program that works predictably.

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To really program with DNA we'll need our
own programming language, one that allows us

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to create our own grammar and vocabulary.

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We can call the words parts where each
part describes some biological function.

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Here's a functional sequence I happen to know.

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>> Dude: Is that a real sequence?

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>> Sally: What do you mean real?

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It's really nucleotides.

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>> Dude: I mean does it do anything?

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Is it really a part?

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>> Sally: It is.

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This one is a promoter, a piece
of DNA where the RNA polymerase

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from the bacteriophage T7 can bind.

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>> Dude: But how did you know that?

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How am I supposed to know that?

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>> Sally: Dude, that's the point!

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>> Dude: What?

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That you know more than me?!

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>> Sally: No.

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Look. The point is that we can describe
the function of a sequence and catalog it

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so you don't have to memorize sequences.

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No one does.

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Here, let's draw a black box around the
sequence itself and call it a promoter part.

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>> Dude: Here, let me try?

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>> Sally: Dude!

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>> Dude: No Sally, really.

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Parts are only cool if they
can be snapped together.

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Even this electronics kit makes it easy to
hook the wires up to the battery and the LED.

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The instruction book gives me rules
for putting the parts together

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so I don't short circuit or fry the thing.

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Don't be mad but I really don't see how
biological parts will help me write a new

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genetic program if there isn't an easy
way to put them together so they'll work.

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>> Sally: I'm not mad.

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These are two really important
ideas, and you're exactly right.

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No one knows the all rules for
reliably assembling genetic programs

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but there are some ideas about
how to put the parts together.

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Want to look?

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>> Dude: Sure.

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>> Sally: Well the parts
will need to be standardized

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in some way so they can snap together.

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Let's look at BioBricks for one example.