Genetics: why Prince Charles is so wrong

Monday, February 10th, 2003

As a non-Brit, I didn’t get the reference to Prince Charles in Genetics: why Prince Charles is so wrong, but as an amateur bioinformaticist (is there such a thing?), I got Dawkins’ point:

It is hard to exaggerate the sheer intellectual excitement of genetics. What has happened is that genetics has become a branch of information technology. The genetic code is truly digital, in exactly the same sense as computer codes. This is not some vague analogy, it is the literal truth. Moreover, unlike computer codes, the genetic code is universal. Modern computers are built around a number of mutually incompatible machine languages, determined by their processor chips. The genetic code, on the other hand, with a few very minor exceptions, is identical in every living creature on this planet, from sulphur bacteria to giant redwood trees, from mushrooms to men. All living creatures, on this planet at least, are the same “make”.

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Lu An Li: For McChuck and thank you. Makes sense. Unity of command.
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Genetics: why Prince Charles is so wrong

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