The individual molecular trajectories of ribosomes can be observed using optical tweezers. In this artist's representation of a single-molecule experiment, optical tweezers hold the ends of a single mRNA strand and observe the ribosome as it unwinds a hairpin in the RNA. As the ribosome opens the hairpin and reads the RNA, it also synthesizes a nascent protein. Through this assay, single translation events can be monitored in real-time, revealing how the ribosome acts as a molecular machine.