Human genome the molecule is the message | Helder, M. 2000.
CS Dialogue 27(3):4-5. CELD ID 14549Abstract On Tuesday, June 27, 2000 the National Post published a two page spread. At first glance, it did not look that exciting. The text on these pages consisted only of four letters, C, G, A and T, arranged in seemingly random order. The final line, for example, begins CATGGTGTCATACTGCTCTTTATTTTATT etc. etc. etc. A small note tells us why this newspaper devoted two pages (B6 and B7) to what appears like gibberish. Apparently the 32,767 letters on these pages are part of the sequence or order of information for human Chromosome 17. This piece of DNA (deoxyribosenucleic acid) molecule is one of 23 different chromosomes that direct development and life functions of each person. The note also reveals that it would require 2606 double-page spreads of text to print the entire sequence of Chromosome 17 and 91,555 double page spreads to print the entire contents of all 23 chromosomes (a total of about 3 billion letters)!!
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