Originally posted by RJHinds
I probably understand DNA better than most people on RHP. I know that the DNA molecule of a cell is something like a hard drive storage media in computers. It stores the information programming for the construction of parts in the cell and the total reproduction of cells.
Here is a quick video introduction to what I mean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch ...[text shortened]... w.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-kLA3uEyA
What is DNA?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwibgNGe4aY
The problem with the first video is that he's using a metaphor to describe
what the DNA is about, but the metaphor is poorly chosen. DNA is "code" for
life, in the same way that black powder is "code" for thermal energy.
The process by which DNA is used to produce proteins is under ideal
circumstances as portrayed in the last video, but often (like really often)
mistakes occur (or nothing happens). That's because what you've got is not a
perfectly tuned machine reading code and following instructions to the letter,
but instead molecules floating around, colliding and reacting with each other
in really random ways. A lot of what should happen in a cell doesn't happen
nine times out of ten, but when it does, it works. Sometimes even the wrong
reactions take place (like when a virus randomly hits a cell which can react
with it in such a way that the virus is copied, increasing the odds that more
cells will be infected). It should be clear now that the only reason anything in
your body works, is because of the sheer number of molecules available with
which a cell can react. Not every protein you digest is going to be broken into
amino acids, and not every amino acid in a cell is going to be used to create
new proteins. It's a very imprecise, sloppy machine with a lot of waste, the
cell is.
When using DNA as a storage medium,
that's the moment that DNA
ceases to be just a molecule, and becomes information. The information part
is in our minds, and the DNA can carry information for us. Of course, when
saying "when will I carry my torrents around in my cells", it should be clear
to everyone that the man is joking. I'd like to see what happens to you if you
insert DNA structured to hold Shakespeare’s collected works into the nuclei
of your cells. It should be interesting.
Now, because the cell is an imprecise machine, DNA is not self-replicating
(the cell is), DNA is not self-correcting (don't know where he got that from),
when cells divide, they don't always divide perfectly. This is how new kinds
of cells can come to be. Those cells that works well survives, and those that
don't die. Everything in nature, from bacteria to elephants are made up of
cells (well, bacteria would be one cell...), so if cells are self-replicating
through imperfect means allowing changes to creep into the process, clearly
"information" can be added to produce new life forms, and since only those
forms of life that are successful in their environment survives, it appears as
though someone designed only the forms to fill their specific niche in nature.
Science or Spirituality?
13 Apr '14 13:30
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