Like alphabet letters, the cell has access to 4 different nucleotides which may be arranged in different combinations along the DNA polymer or chain. Like combining letters in a word, the cell uses a specific combination of 3 of the nucleotides to represent one of the 20 amino acids that are used to make proteins. Four different nucleotides can be arranged in a total of 64 different triplet (i.e letter) combinations. Since there are more than 3 times as many triplets as amino acids, some amino acids are represented by more than one triplet. Then there are “start” and “stop” codons. The whole system is like the binary code (0 and 1) used in computer language where a bit, that is a combination of eight 0’s and 1’s, is used to code for a specific letter or number (e.g. 01100001, 01100010, and 01100011 is binary code for a, b, and c, respectively .

Do you get the idea? The nucleotides along the DNA represent a language and the message is the proteins which make up the complicated cell. DNA is in fact a digital code just the way the 0’s and 1’s in computers form a digital code to produce functional programs. Only minds can manipulate computer code to produce workable programs, and only an awesome mind can devise and manipulate the code that runs the living cell.

Related Resources

• Journey Inside The Cell (YouTube, 4 min)