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To: Nebullis
Maybe this is all simple for those who love their differential equations, but I don't think it's a simple matter to compute either the information content or the channel capacity of a DNA sequence, per se.

Agreed. But we can certainly put an upper limit on the information content,. If we say the number of combinations in DNA is 4^N, where N is the number of base pairs, then the entropy of the specific sequence can be no more than k*N*ln 4 lower than total randomness. As I've noted before, this is a thermodynamically tiny quantity; for 10^9 base pairs, it is of the order of 10^-14 J/mol K, or equivalent to the order produced by freezing about a 10 femtograms of water. If the sequence is not unique in terms of phenotype (which, as you note, it will not be), the negative entropy will be lower than the number computed above, but it cannot be higher.

We could also argue that not all the order in the cell resides in the genome. After all, a genome cannot produce a new organism unless it has the entire apparatus of the cell to work with. We could put an upper bound on this by ordinary thermodynamic measurements - just by burning the organism, for example - and again it appears the negative entropy is absolutely minuscule.

It's a sobering thought, but the human genome does not appear to be particularly complex. The Bible, I'd warrant, has nearly as much information content as any of our genomes.

4,627 posted on 01/12/2003 7:57:38 AM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: Right Wing Professor
It's a sobering thought, but the human genome does not appear to be particularly complex. The Bible, I'd warrant, has nearly as much information content as any of our genomes.

You might find it curious that some Kabbalists believe our DNA is our "name" and the Bible is one of God's names, as He is revealing Himself to us.

4,634 posted on 01/12/2003 9:31:06 AM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: Right Wing Professor
It's a sobering thought, but the human genome does not appear to be particularly complex.

Really? In spite of all our knowledge, intelligence and technology no one has yet been able to create as much as a single new gene that performs a single new function. We alone have some 30,000 such genes.

4,646 posted on 01/12/2003 2:04:40 PM PST by gore3000
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To: Right Wing Professor
It's a sobering thought, but the human genome does not appear to be particularly complex. The Bible, I'd warrant, has nearly as much information content as any of our genomes.

And neither have much more than a lowly termite. Sobering, indeed.

Thanks for the explanation.

4,697 posted on 01/12/2003 7:32:08 PM PST by Nebullis
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