4 ms·

The article is from 2013.

by taneliv 10y ago

r721 10y ago
Also it's copy-pasted from another source: http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/12/12/scientists-discover-double-meaning-in-genetic-code/ http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/12/12/scientists-discove... HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6896779 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6896779
- toufka 10y ago
  It's also super click-baity. The idea that a protein coding region of DNA can also have regulatory function is not new or a revolutionary idea. The science behind it is certainly useful and interesting, but not worth deceptively proclaiming we've found a second programming language. The linked article is also just very poorly written. The click-through links are way more accurate (and less click-baity). Go look at how HIV encodes itself. It's got regulation in protein coding regions, on both strands, with overlapping reading frames. It's incredible. Kind of like Mozart's Mirror Duet - sheet music designed to be played right-side up and up-side-down - if it were also a fugue. Exotic compression gets interesting quickly.
  - agumonkey 10y ago
    Fairly bored with dna as code ideas, that said I'm utterly curious about emergence of DNA or very prototypical forms of protein encoding in organisms.. but I don't know what to look for. Is there a specific term ?
    - toufka 10y ago
      The emergence of coding is interesting and an active field of study but still not entirely found a consensus yet. One of the most interesting ideas is of an 'RNA World' [1]. Many of the oldest, first, most essential protein-like machines in your body aren't actually 'proteins' at all, but are RNA molecules that are enhanced structurally and otherwise by some protein helpers (ribosomes are the prime example). RNA has a lot more reactivity than DNA, so it can be an enzyme in a way DNA cannot. It's also more flexible (RNA is a single flexible cooked-noodle-strand, rather than DNA's double solid uncooked-noodle double strand). So RNA can fold in cool ways to make really crappy enzymes - but functional none-the-less. Proteins are way more versatile as enzymes, but way worse at encoding information (precisely because they become structurally 'stuck'). So you have the thought that everything started off with a dual-use molecule - RNA. And that RNA was used as a bootstrap to build enzymes that made two different kind of molecules - one for long-term information storage: DNA, and another for building better enzymes: proteins. It's an elegant idea. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world_hypothesis

The article is from 2013.

by taneliv 10y ago

The article is from 2013.

r721 10y ago

Also it's copy-pasted from another source: http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/12/12/scientists-discover-double-meaning-in-genetic-code/ http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/12/12/scientists-discove... HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6896779 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6896779

toufka 10y ago
It's also super click-baity. The idea that a protein coding region of DNA can also have regulatory function is not new or a revolutionary idea. The science behind it is certainly useful and interesting, but not worth deceptively proclaiming we've found a second programming language. The linked article is also just very poorly written. The click-through links are way more accurate (and less click-baity). Go look at how HIV encodes itself. It's got regulation in protein coding regions, on both strands, with overlapping reading frames. It's incredible. Kind of like Mozart's Mirror Duet - sheet music designed to be played right-side up and up-side-down - if it were also a fugue. Exotic compression gets interesting quickly.
- agumonkey 10y ago
  Fairly bored with dna as code ideas, that said I'm utterly curious about emergence of DNA or very prototypical forms of protein encoding in organisms.. but I don't know what to look for. Is there a specific term ?
  - toufka 10y ago
    The emergence of coding is interesting and an active field of study but still not entirely found a consensus yet. One of the most interesting ideas is of an 'RNA World' [1]. Many of the oldest, first, most essential protein-like machines in your body aren't actually 'proteins' at all, but are RNA molecules that are enhanced structurally and otherwise by some protein helpers (ribosomes are the prime example). RNA has a lot more reactivity than DNA, so it can be an enzyme in a way DNA cannot. It's also more flexible (RNA is a single flexible cooked-noodle-strand, rather than DNA's double solid uncooked-noodle double strand). So RNA can fold in cool ways to make really crappy enzymes - but functional none-the-less. Proteins are way more versatile as enzymes, but way worse at encoding information (precisely because they become structurally 'stuck'). So you have the thought that everything started off with a dual-use molecule - RNA. And that RNA was used as a bootstrap to build enzymes that made two different kind of molecules - one for long-term information storage: DNA, and another for building better enzymes: proteins. It's an elegant idea. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world_hypothesis