Proteins are building blocks that help give your body structure and do work around your body. They move molecules, they make new molecules, they recycle old molecules, and this is just to name a few of the things that they do. But maybe the most interesting thing is that these protein building blocks are themselves made up of smaller building blocks called amino acids. Here you can see a string of amino acids. The different shapes that you can see represent the atoms that make up each amino acid. And here we've highlighted 12 individual amino acids. To make it simpler, each different amino acid can be represented by a single letter. Now each amino acid is shown as a colored ball, looking like beads on a string. This makes the protein structure easier to imagine. The order of amino acids is only part of the story. Because of the different shapes of the individual amino acids, they like to fold into even more interesting three-dimensional shapes. This molecule is twisting into several different spiral or helical shapes, and then those are folding on each other. Take a look at the three-dimensional shape as we give the protein a spin. Kind of looks like logs stacked in a fireplace. Here's the one letter amino acid code revealing the identity of each amino acid. Again now you see the amino acids drawn to show the position of each atom. This is like looking at an atomic skeleton of each amino acid. Just like you take up more space than just your skeleton would, see how much space each atom really occupies. This is the real shape of the protein. Now we've seen an example of a protein taking shape, and several of the ways scientists visualize these tiny building blocks used throughout your body.