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- Title
"Hot Soup" At Life's Origin.
- Abstract
This article discusses various issues related to a new theory that explains why the language of human genes is more complex than it needs to be. According to the researchers at the University of Bath, England, there is a new theory that could solve a puzzle that has baffled scientists since they first deciphered the language of DNA almost 40 years ago. Scientists have been puzzling for the last 40 years over why there should be 64 words in the DNA dictionary that translate into just 20 amino acids, and why a process that is more complex than it needs to be should have evolved in the first place. The new theory builds on an original idea suggested by Francis Crick, one of the discoverers of the structure of DNA, that the three-letter code evolved from a simpler two-letter code, although Crick thought the difference in number was simply an accident "frozen in time." According to the researchers at the university suggest that the primordial "doublet" code was read in threes, but with only either the first two "prefix" or last two "suffix" pairs of bases being actively read.
- Subjects
BATH (England); ENGLAND; GENES; DNA; CRICK, Francis, 1916-2004; SCIENTISTS; UNIVERSITY of Bath
- Publication
Science & Children, 2005, Vol 43, Issue 2, p8
- ISSN
0036-8148
- Publication type
Article