Is DNA a Code?
Apr 4, 2023 21:45:28 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Apr 4, 2023 21:45:28 GMT -5
First, what is code? Well, for something to be a code it must contain and transmit information. For example, the secret codes used during WWI and WWII had crucial information concerning military campaigns.
Second: A code must convey such information via symbols assembled in specific sequential patterns intended to transmit a message or instructions.
Third, in order to be useful, a code needs someone able to understand it. Such individuals are called Code Breakers. Only then can the message that the sequences of symbol's were intended to convey be understood.
Does DNA meet those criteria? Yes it does:
It contains information on how to build life.
It employs chemicals in sequences as symbols in order to transmit that information.
It requires an interpreter, the RNA molecule, that understands the message and transmits it to pre-assembled molecular machines.
Second: A code must convey such information via symbols assembled in specific sequential patterns intended to transmit a message or instructions.
Third, in order to be useful, a code needs someone able to understand it. Such individuals are called Code Breakers. Only then can the message that the sequences of symbol's were intended to convey be understood.
Does DNA meet those criteria? Yes it does:
It contains information on how to build life.
It employs chemicals in sequences as symbols in order to transmit that information.
It requires an interpreter, the RNA molecule, that understands the message and transmits it to pre-assembled molecular machines.
The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, and more than 99 percent of those bases are the same in all people. The order, or sequence, of these bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism, similar to the way in which letters of the alphabet appear in a certain order to form words and sentences.
The four types of nitrogen bases found in nucleotides are: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). The order, or sequence, of these bases determines what biological instructions are contained in a strand of DNA. For example, the sequence ATCGTT might instruct for blue eyes, while ATCGCT might instruct for brown.