Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: bobdsmith
"DNA is nothing like computer programming code."

Incorrect.

DNA code is comprised of mathematical Base-4 "codons" that are organized in three letter programming words and grouped into reuseable subroutines that we call genes.

Base DNA codon words are translated into one of 20 amino acids and processed by a biological code-reading engine precisely as human computer Base-2 (aka Binary) bits are processed by a computer CPU.

Likewise, the overall genome contains both programming commands as well as data.

596 posted on 08/19/2005 10:24:00 AM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 543 | View Replies ]


To: Southack
DNA code is comprised of mathematical Base-4 "codons" that are organized in three letter programming words and grouped into reuseable subroutines that we call genes.

Stringing together terms from differnet fields doesn't make a point. The only possible similarity I can see between genes and subroutines is that subroutines are "part" of a program, and genes are "part" of a genome. But I can see far more differences. Are genes composed of sequential instructions? no. Can genes be called? no. Is there a data stack in DNA? no.

Base DNA codon words are translated into one of 20 amino acids and processed by a biological code-reading engine precisely as human computer Base-2 (aka Binary) bits are processed by a computer CPU.

It is remotely similar, but far from the same, let alone precisely the same. The amino acids in a gene represent a protein to be formed. A protein is not an instruction (neither is it a subroutine, hard disk, etc). A protein is a molecule, and the behaviour of the biological system is determined how all of the proteins produced interact as well as environmental pressures (ie physical growth can be obstructed). It is nothing like a computer in which instructions are sequentially read, executed and the results are stored. I don't see any jump instructions in DNA.

Likewise, the overall genome contains both programming commands as well as data.

What are the commands? What is the instruction set?

635 posted on 08/19/2005 1:02:50 PM PDT by bobdsmith
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 596 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson