Natures most complex coding-decoding machine: the evolution of the DNA. Very exciting stuff! These enlightening discoveries about the nature of our most mysterious and intriguing sub-cellular jigsaw puzzle, our genetic code, further illustrate the need for focusing on peaceful aspects of R&D. In this article it talks about junk DNA, but in fact the genetic code includes packets of DNA, special sequences, that act as regulators or activators which control other genes. Although the basic vocabulary of the DNA strands (genetic code) is comprised of the four building blocks usually abbreviated to CTAG. The complexity is mind boggling if one considers that all the different cells of an organism share the same basic DNA compliment. But in addition, ALL living organisms (more or less) share this basic construct: from bacteria, to slime mold, to house flies, eagle and man. From the Information Technology perspective we often refer to the BINARY code which is based upon 1 and 0. We can encode all the information in the world by using bytes of information made up of sequences of 1s and 0s. For example the word love is encoded : 01001100 01101111 01110110 01100101 If you have a basic alphabet of 4 digits or 4 letters then this is much greater than the binary code - enough to code for all the different proteins and macro molecules, the different biochemistry in each cell, and within the different compartments or organelles of the cells, right down to the genetic variations of our inherited parental characteristics and so on. But, what if this miracle double helix actually stores multi-layered codes and functions we can not detect or decipher yet which codes for more than biochemical reactions?
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 21:38:25 +0000