23-05-2025
I'm helping my son with his GCSE revision. But what's the point?
The ribosome works through how many base pairs of mRNA?' I ask.
'Three,' says Child B.
'Correct. And what's that called?'
'A codon.'
'Correct. And what's a codon when it's at home?'
'It's a piece of code that specifies a particular amino acid?'
'Correct. And how is that useful in our day-to-day lives?'
'What?'
Child B is in the middle of his GCSEs — it's a stressful time for him. Months and months of work condensed into a series of arbitrary tests upon which, he thinks, all his future prospects rest.
It's worse for me, though, because it brings it all back. For years after I sat my last exam I had a recurring nightmare. I'd find myself sitting in my old school hall surrounded
