The ribosome finds the appropriate amino acid for each "letter" and assembles them head-to-tail in sequence; other "letters" indicate when to start and when to stop.

We'd assumed we'd have to give it a moving head and tail, facial features, and put a scene on it to make it smell like a real rat, but that wasn't necessary.

A kipper is a whole herring fish that has been split from tail to head, salted, and smoked.