The amazing thing is that the videos are all in "slow motion"...
The video showed 1-2 amino acid residues being added per second. In real life, translation is anywhere from 3-10 times faster. I suspect the same is true for transcription and replication.
P.S. Does anyone know what those blue proteins (?) were on the hemoglobin molecule? Mutagens? Hemophilia is an inherited condition, so that doesn't make much sense to me. (Perhaps they were just trying to illustrate the difference between normal hemoglobin and S hemoglobin...).
In actuality, translation occurs even faster than that. Speed of translation depends upon which amino acids are being added to the protein being produced. Translation can actually occur up to 500 times faster than that.
Transcription occurs far faster than they are showing, at the rate of up to 10,000 base pairs per second.
As for the blue 'proteins' binding to hemoglobin (Hb), they are actually not proteins but Oxygen molecules binding to one of four Oxygen-binding sites located on every molecule of Hb.
Oh, and for those who have not heard of "S" hemoglobin, which you mentioned, this refers to a specific mutation in the DNA that causes the Hb to bind together to other Hb molecules in a chain. Normally it's free floating. When that happens, it deforms red blood cells (whose sole function is to carry oxygen around your body) and reduces their ability to carry oxygen, leading to sickle-cell anemia.
More than you ever wanted to know!
-A Cell & Molecular Biologist
