3 ms·

This horrifies me... This is why I'm not a biologist.

jean_valje4n 5y ago
There is abstraction though. It's just fuzzy. 3 DNA base pairs abstract to an amino acid which has chemical properties. It's just theres some redundancy which 3 base pairs get converted to an amino acid. And if there's a single mistake somewhere with just one amino acid, the structure of the thousand amino acid long protein probably has some fault tolerance there. Those amino acids are arranged in a way in the DNA code to make bigger motifs, alpha helices, beta sheets, active sites, coordinating complexes with inorganic ions. It's all in the DNA code, though I suspect this train of thoughts is influenced by epigenetics. Parts of the DNA code also responsible for the regulation of how much the protein itself is expressed. That can still abstract to conditional and loop structures. Yes some of the base pairs strongly bind together in the double helice which can influence stability of the DNA strand. The GC pairing has 3 hydrogen bonds, where AT has 2, but I think this influences the distribution of junk DNA, as you still need codons to make proteins which is the central dogma of biology.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  There are lots of problems with this approach, even though of course it is also true on some rather important level. The first level of problems is that what you're describing applies to only a tiny percentage of the DNA in a cell, and even for that DNA, it may overlap/exist in parallel with completely different "codings" that are more to do with structure, packing and replication machinery than protein coding.
morninglight 5y ago
> This is why I'm not a biologist. I don't mean to distress you, but you are a biological computer. Just rejoice that you needn't read the release notes.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  the definition of "computer" in "you are a biological computer" has been the subject of intense philosophical and scientific discussion for more than 70 years, and at this point I would say the best summary of the state of that discussion is "well, maybe but also maybe not".
- Nevermark 5y ago
  Except we need the release notes! And there aren't any.
  - croddin 5y ago
    Not that most apps even give good release notes. If we did have them you could expect: “Thanks for being human. This update changes your DNA and may contain bug fixes and performance improvements. Keep on humaning!”
  - birdman3131 5y ago
    Genesis 1 is about as detailed as many of the release notes I see. And about as accurate.
  - kelseyfrog 5y ago
    The good news is that humans are self-documenting.
    - TremendousJudge 5y ago
      The documentation for the human body is much better than anything Google ever published, that's for sure

There is abstraction though. It's just fuzzy. 3 DNA base pairs abstract to an amino acid which has chemical properties. It's just theres some redundancy which 3 base pairs get converted to an amino acid. And if there's a single mistake somewhere with just one amino acid, the structure of the thousand amino acid long protein probably has some fault tolerance there. Those amino acids are arranged in a way in the DNA code to make bigger motifs, alpha helices, beta sheets, active sites, coordinating complexes with inorganic ions. It's all in the DNA code, though I suspect this train of thoughts is influenced by epigenetics. Parts of the DNA code also responsible for the regulation of how much the protein itself is expressed. That can still abstract to conditional and loop structures. Yes some of the base pairs strongly bind together in the double helice which can influence stability of the DNA strand. The GC pairing has 3 hydrogen bonds, where AT has 2, but I think this influences the distribution of junk DNA, as you still need codons to make proteins which is the central dogma of biology.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
There are lots of problems with this approach, even though of course it is also true on some rather important level. The first level of problems is that what you're describing applies to only a tiny percentage of the DNA in a cell, and even for that DNA, it may overlap/exist in parallel with completely different "codings" that are more to do with structure, packing and replication machinery than protein coding.

morninglight 5y ago

> This is why I'm not a biologist. I don't mean to distress you, but you are a biological computer. Just rejoice that you needn't read the release notes.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
the definition of "computer" in "you are a biological computer" has been the subject of intense philosophical and scientific discussion for more than 70 years, and at this point I would say the best summary of the state of that discussion is "well, maybe but also maybe not".
Nevermark 5y ago
Except we need the release notes! And there aren't any.
- croddin 5y ago
  Not that most apps even give good release notes. If we did have them you could expect: “Thanks for being human. This update changes your DNA and may contain bug fixes and performance improvements. Keep on humaning!”
- birdman3131 5y ago
  Genesis 1 is about as detailed as many of the release notes I see. And about as accurate.
- kelseyfrog 5y ago
  The good news is that humans are self-documenting.
  - TremendousJudge 5y ago
    The documentation for the human body is much better than anything Google ever published, that's for sure