The "Digital Code" of DNA

Because it comprises the encoded gene. Are you really denying that genes are encoded on DNA? Are you also saying that Watson and Crick should give back their Nobel Prize in chemistry?”HMEdited by Hoot Mon, : No reason given.

Ringo, you wrote: Thank you demonstrating my point about SNPs. I guess you agree then that a codon is a genetic "word" that expresses any one of 20 amino acids. Case closed.”HM

Ringo, you wrote: I do see what you are saying here: If there were no structural DNA molecules there would be no genetic code. Of course that's true. And if there were no musical instruments there would be no music either. Yet music and genes have meaning beyond their respective tools of performance. Remember, a gene does not die when its chromosome is destroyed; there are many copies of it in the gene pool”redundantly digital information. Neither does a song die when a player and his paino and sheet music are lost in a fire. I don't mean to say there is anything necessarily ethereal about genes or music, only that their meanings can be intrepreted digitally in a digital context (which is ethereal enough for me, btw).”HM

WK wrote: No. That's the beauty of the genetic alphabet; it has evolved redundancy in its code definitions as a means to defend against third-order SNPs.”HM

I don't understand what is "metaphoriocal" about 1's and 0's. What is a digital code a metaphor of? ...another digital code? CAG does not "represent" a protein. CAG is a codon of three digital nucleotides, which codes for the amino acid glutamine. It takes many codons to hold the digital instructions of an entire protein. I don't understand what you are saying. DNA certainly does not catalyze a protein. DNA is remote to the chemical production of proteins. (I threw in "chemical for Ringo's sake, who believes molecules are only chemicals and have no way to store digital codes.) DNA is linked to proteins only by way of code translation, which is performed by messenger RNA.”HM

No. What you don't seem to understand is that A,G,T, and C are the "bits" of the digital genetic code. I suspect that you are fixed on the idea that digital coding must involve 1's and 0's. If this is true then you need to rexamine your position. An LP recording is not digital, but instead analog, and therefore it is not in any way equivalent to to the genetic code. A CD recording is digital is every respect, and so are the genes on DNA. Perhaps you should take a closer look at how genes operate and how mutations occur.”HM

"Fictitious" only if it offends your chemical religion.Maybe then we should demand that Watson & Crick give back their Nobel Prize in chemistry, and that Crick should retract his pivotal paper on the origin of the genetic code (1968, J. Mol. Biol., 38:367-379). How can two such astute chemists wander so far off into the digital woo-woos of genetic encryption and get away with it?”HM

Well, Bill Hamilton was fond of referring to the "narrow roads of Gene Land. This is an absurd assertion. Of course there are no gene fairies who lift the codes gently off the DNA molecules and keep them safe in their digital hooches until they can be selected for or aganist by Mother Nature or Father Time. Is that what you think I am saying? Is this how people do their thinking up there in Canuckistan?”HM

Sorry, rob. Can't go there. Too busy picking my nose.”HM

Ringo, are you suggesting that I am referring to a metaphysical code? I fail to grasp the importance of your point. Of course it's all about physical arrangements of nucleotides. The literal equivalent to what you are saying would be something like ...'there can be no written language without words' or 'there are no oceans without water.' Ay?”HM

No one ever said that genetic code is "somehow above and beyond the structure of the DNA molecule." That's just more tripe rolling off your finger tips. You need to get clear about what you are saying. And you have not yet shown us how or why genetic code is NOT digital. Still waiting for the revelation.”HM

Because you refuse to see that nucleic acids are capable of encoding, storing, translating, and transmitting digital genetic information. That's all.”HM

Do you know of any other natural molecules besides nucleic acids that contain digital codes?

Wrong! If DNA is not inherently capable of storing digital code, wherein the nucleotides A, C, T, and G serve as digits, then how do you explain genetic mutation by way of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)?”HM

Of course it is, physically, but your point is quite silly. The same thing could be said about a written language: 'Words are in the structure of the sentence, or letters are in the structure of the word.' What does that mean? Of course they are. And of course you have to have something physical to hold a code. No one's saying that genetic codes fly around on their own. Can we get past that now?”HM