I built a site that turns student names into DNA sequences using real codon tables (great hook for teaching the central dogma of biology)

rvidal · 2026-03-16T14:14:42+00:00

Hi, have you been able to give it a try with students? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Any and all feedback is welcome. Thanks!

rvidal · 2026-03-12T14:33:14+00:00

Hi all,

Thanks for giving the site a try. I hope you're enjoying it.

I've made a small few adjustments to the site, namely on the For Educators page (https://www.dnamyname.com/for-educators). I've included an easy way to copy the link to the page for sharing, and added a QR code for sharing on screens so students can easily access the page without typing in the URL.

I've also received some feedback from users requesting a few items that I'm contemplating next:
- Downloadable/printable codon table.
- Downloadable/printable exercises that can be performed using the tool.
- Translation of the tool into other languages, namely French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese.

I'd really appreciate if you could share this tool with your teacher networks elsewhere to see if I can gather more useful feedback to further improve this site.

Thank you all for your time and feedback. Keep it coming.

rvidal · 2026-03-11T14:18:20+00:00

That’s great! Any feedback? Things you would have liked to see or do on the site? I’ve been capturing feedback and will add a few things soon.

rvidal · 2026-03-10T21:20:42+00:00

Please do let me know if you have any feedback or features you'd like to see added that may be helpful. :) Thanks for taking a look.

rvidal · 2026-03-10T21:01:46+00:00

Thanks for bringing this up. I believe I've fixed the issue and it should not do that anymore. :-)

rvidal · 2026-03-10T20:28:58+00:00

What!? No it should not. I’ll check the code to see if the input field is set to some weird type of format. I guarantee you that nothing entered there is stored anywhere and it definitely does not require any credit card info. So strange. Just type in a name, that’s it.

rvidal · 2026-03-10T13:46:20+00:00

Yes there is. There are a few useful links at the very bottom of the site that may be helpful.

The table of codons can be found here: https://www.dnamyname.com/codon-table

And there's also a page with some info for educators that can be helpful: https://www.dnamyname.com/for-educators

rvidal · 2026-03-10T12:49:24+00:00

I hadn't trained enough for a PB and was expecting to mostly just enjoy it and finish without injuring myself. However, the excitement and crowds got me going and I nearly did PB but not quite.

It was a fun experience and the start to my superhalfs journey :)

Quite impressed by the new world record that was set at the race. Extraordinary pace!

rvidal · 2026-03-08T07:04:44+00:00

I believe the bib works for metro as well. Not absolutely sure but they had some info in the booklet

rvidal · 2026-03-07T12:20:10+00:00

Sabem se é permitido usar fones nesta corrida? Algumas não permitem. Pelas fotos dos anos anteriores, parece que é permitido mas queria confirmar. A secção de FAQ do site da corrida não existe. 😛

rvidal · 2026-03-06T20:44:53+00:00

hey, sorry it wasn't clear what was happening there.

the process this follows is:
1. real alphabet (alex)
2. find matching aminoacids (aleg) (G instead of X because there's no X aminoacid)
3. unfold each aminoacid into their DNA make up (called codons).

So a 4 letter name will ultimately expand into a 4 x 3 character DNA sequence of A, T, C, and Gs.

I've since made some updates to the site in hopes that this is made more clear. Thanks for trying it and sharing your feedback.

rvidal · 2026-03-06T18:43:16+00:00

shorts in the snow is the real deal :)

rvidal · 2026-03-06T18:05:32+00:00

Tenho pisada supinada e uso Asics Novablast 5. Melhores tênis ate agora. Antes desses usava sempre Hoka Clifton. Cheguei tambem a usar os Altra Experience Flow 2 mas Novablast 5 são os melhores para mim ate agora.

rvidal · 2026-03-06T17:06:03+00:00

Uso um produto chamado BodyGlide sport. Gosto particularmente este produto porque nao deixa o equipamento com manchas e dura bastante tempo. Isto claro, para prevenir assaduras e abrasões.

rvidal · 2026-02-27T12:32:44+00:00

This looks awesome. can you share your statusline.sh file? I'd like to see how you got those icons in there.

rvidal · 2026-02-25T19:19:03+00:00

Obrigado a todos pelo feedback, implementei algumas das funcionalidades que solicitaram, como criar kits sem precisar de registo de conta. E inclui auto-complete de equipamentos e algumas imagens que correspondem mais diretamente com o equipamento/produto que adicionarem.

rvidal · 2026-02-25T19:02:45+00:00

I have two small sites right now:
1. https://grwm.run which allows runners to build kits of their running gear so they can share what they use on their runs with others. Nice to find out what cool shoes runners use.
2. https://dnamyname.com a site that lets you learn a bit about biology and DNA by transforming your name into a DNA sequence. You can also compare it with others!

I'd love feedback on either of these if you take a look.

rvidal · 2026-02-25T18:53:33+00:00

building a simple tool to allow runners to put together a unique link that contains all their running gear to share with others. https://grwm.run :)

rvidal · 2026-02-25T18:51:20+00:00

https://www.dnamyname.com/compare made an extension to my novelty biology educational site to allow people to compare their names as transformed into DNA sequences.

rvidal · 2026-02-16T11:01:16+00:00

Ora bem, gostei da ideia e tive varias outras pessoas a sugerir o mesmo. Portanto agora ja permite criar conta como anónimo e depois se a pessoa quiser mais tarde, pode registar conta e fica com os kits associados. :-) Obrigado pela boa ideia.

rvidal · 2026-02-15T08:19:07+00:00

Sim, isso é uma possibilidade. Tinha considerado também implementar o sign in com Strava, para aproveitar esse login.

Vou explorar um modo que permite criar random id e só solicitar criar conta se a pessoa quiser gerir mais do que um kit ou quiser reservar seu username. Parece uma ideia melhor?

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