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GENETIC INFORMATION. "One might suggest that the genetic information is equally carried by the amino acids produced by the codons. So that is a total information of 4,392,322,500 bits including the epigenome. In ASCII code, that would be 627,474,642 MB (megabytes)." http://www.decodedscience.org/comparing-genetic-code-dna-binary-code/55476 View in LinkedIn

THE GREY ZONE. "The core issue is thus to specify how “agents” emerge from chemicals (ribozymes) to form identity (such as for replicators) and then form groups that learn membership. For all extant life, these agents must have initially been RNA stem loops. Single RNA stem-loop generation occurs by physical chemical properties solely as demonstrated by natural and randomized RNA experiments." https://lnkd.in/eUYvi8e View in LinkedIn

DIGITAL DNA. "We successfully digitized biology by converting the four-letter chemical analog code (A, T, C, G) into the digital code of the computer (1s and 0s). Now we had successfully gone the other direction, starting with the digital code in the computer and re-creating the chemical information of the DNA molecule, then in turn creating living cells that, unlike any before, had no natural history." (Craig Venter). https://books.google.es/books/about/Life_at_the_Speed_of_Light.html?id=GWDD9yMb33cC&hl=en View in LinkedIn

PROGRAMMABLE BIOLOGY. "Thirty years ago, the future lay in programming computers. Today, it’s programming cells: (comparing) the digital revolution spawned by thinking of information as a string of ones and zeros to the coming synthetic biology revolution, premised on thinking about life as a mix of interchangeable parts – genes and gene networks – that can be learned and manipulated like any language." https://lnkd.in/dTQVWrg View in LinkedIn

DIGITAL DNA. " The language of DNA is digital, but not binary. Where binary encoding has 0 and 1 to work with (2 - hence the 'bi'nary), DNA has 4 positions, T, C, G and A. Whereas a digital byte is mostly 8 binary digits, a DNA 'byte' (called a 'codon') has three digits. Because each digit can have 4 values instead of 2, an DNA codon has 64 possible values, compared to a binary byte which has 256." https://lnkd.in/dghBZfW View in LinkedIn

DNA AS CODE. We look look at some similarities between DNA and computer code, and the evolution of both. View in LinkedIn

THE GREY ZONE and related molecular genetics has been the subject of an extended tour through the world of prions, phages, transposons, viruses and junk DNA. As stated at the start of this journey, biology informs artificial intelligence, just as AI informs biology. This is particularly true for the Grey Zone topics of life and consciousness, a major preoccupation in artificial intelligence. View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first of two weekends on mutant RNA viral swarms or quasispecies. These highly proliferative, highly mutating populations of viruses offer possible insights into a RNA-first origin of life scenario. These shape-shifting populations evolve very fast, adapt to new circumstances, and show dramatic phenotypic flexibility. Next weekend we look at some of the clinical implications of these viruses. View in LinkedIn

INTERACTIONS. "It is worth noting that these interactions occur among different genomes, so that the effects are different from those of positive or negative epistasis that are established between mutations within the same genome." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042682215001580 View in LinkedIn

"A CODE is not a symbol. A symbol is not a code. A symbol stands in place of an object or idea. A code stands in place of a symbol: it is a symbol for a symbol." http://www.science20.com/chatter_box/dna_when_code_not_code View in LinkedIn