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Data in DNA

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  • T Tim Carmichael

    Well... if we follow the timeline of bits available backwards from 64 to 32 to 16 to 8... so on, so forth... it was truly binary programming then? Well... that makes sense... 1 and 0... in a phallic sort of way...

    D Offline
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    Daniel Pfeffer
    wrote on last edited by
    #9

    DNA uses triplets of four possible nucleotides (Adenosine, Cytosine, Guanine, and Thymine) to encode 21 different amino acids. This implies a 6-bit system with some redundancy. Perhaps DEC's early PDP machines (12-bit PDP-5 & -8, 18-bit PDP-1, 36-bit PDP-7 & -10) were on to something!

    If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill

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    • Richard Andrew x64R Richard Andrew x64

      Then it's only a matter of time before the NSA puts spyware into our DNA!!

      The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.

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      Daniel Pfeffer
      wrote on last edited by
      #10

      Richard Andrew x64 wrote:

      The difficult we do right away...
      ...the impossible takes slightly longer.

      Miracles by appointment only? :)

      If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill

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      • realJSOPR realJSOP

        Well, scientists announced they can now store data in DNA. One has to wonder if that's how life here got started - "Coded" DNA left on the surface of the petri dish that we call "Earth".

        ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
        -----
        You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
        -----
        When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

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        J Offline
        Jorgen Andersson
        wrote on last edited by
        #11

        I've already done that. Twice. My wife helped.

        Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

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        • realJSOPR realJSOP

          Well, scientists announced they can now store data in DNA. One has to wonder if that's how life here got started - "Coded" DNA left on the surface of the petri dish that we call "Earth".

          ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
          -----
          You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
          -----
          When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

          G Offline
          G Offline
          Gary Wheeler
          wrote on last edited by
          #12

          Let's just hope that we're not the interstellar equivalent of a paper-tape backup.

          Software Zen: delete this;

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          • L Lost User

            Perhaps they have the proteins needed to write such sequences, but it makes me shiver if they try to use this on a living cell. They would probably use 'Junk DNA' as storage space and then it will probably quickly be seen that some sequences were not evolutionary rubble at all. Hopefully such a massive and undeliberate mutation will not be able to survive.

            The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
            This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a fucking golf cart.
            "I don't know, extraterrestrial?" "You mean like from space?" "No, from Canada."

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            newton saber
            wrote on last edited by
            #13

            CDP1802 wrote:

            Hopefully such a massive and undeliberate mutation will not be able to survive.

            That's very insensitive to the massive and undeliberate mutations out here. Very insensitive, indeed. :((

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            • J Jorgen Andersson

              I've already done that. Twice. My wife helped.

              Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

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              N Offline
              newton saber
              wrote on last edited by
              #14

              Jörgen Andersson wrote:

              I've already done that.

              Best and most true answer of all. I guess you are officially a "Scientist". Probably of the mad variety. :D And, by mad, I mean completely lunar.

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              • Richard Andrew x64R Richard Andrew x64

                Then it's only a matter of time before the NSA puts spyware into our DNA!!

                The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.

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                D Offline
                dandy72
                wrote on last edited by
                #15

                Richard Andrew x64 wrote:

                Then it's only a matter of time before the NSA puts spyware into our DNA!!

                The whackjobs are probably thinking that's the whole point of GM food.

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                • realJSOPR realJSOP

                  Well, scientists announced they can now store data in DNA. One has to wonder if that's how life here got started - "Coded" DNA left on the surface of the petri dish that we call "Earth".

                  ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                  -----
                  You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                  -----
                  When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

                  M Offline
                  M Offline
                  Mark_Wallace
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #16

                  If they were aiming at the thirtieth anniversary of this[^], they missed it by about seven months.

                  I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

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                  • realJSOPR realJSOP

                    Well, scientists announced they can now store data in DNA. One has to wonder if that's how life here got started - "Coded" DNA left on the surface of the petri dish that we call "Earth".

                    ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                    -----
                    You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                    -----
                    When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

                    enhzflepE Offline
                    enhzflepE Offline
                    enhzflep
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #17

                    Uh-huh. And several months ago a band pledged to release an albumn encoded using it. At one recent event, a 12 second clip was encoded and the resultant DNA put into a soap suspension. Audience members were then asked to blow bubbles using the soap so that each of them could leave carrying the music on their skin. Gee we humans can be so incredibly self-indulgent. Musical DNA soap, $300,000 lab-'grown' beef burgers, tourist trips into space. ;sigh; http://www.popsci.com.au/science/band-will-release-album-in-dna,398158[^] http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/music-of-the-spheres[^] As for the proposition you consider - here's some reading if you're up for it. Origin and Evolution of DNA and DNA Replication Machineries[^] Spoiler: DNA (is believed to be and is accepted as being something that) was created here, on earth.

                    "When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." - John Lennon

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                    • D Daniel Pfeffer

                      DNA uses triplets of four possible nucleotides (Adenosine, Cytosine, Guanine, and Thymine) to encode 21 different amino acids. This implies a 6-bit system with some redundancy. Perhaps DEC's early PDP machines (12-bit PDP-5 & -8, 18-bit PDP-1, 36-bit PDP-7 & -10) were on to something!

                      If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill

                      M Offline
                      M Offline
                      Member 10707677
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #18

                      I think it may be a trinary (+0-) system with significant null states.

                      The difficult may take time, the impossible a little longer.

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                      • D Daniel Pfeffer

                        DNA uses triplets of four possible nucleotides (Adenosine, Cytosine, Guanine, and Thymine) to encode 21 different amino acids. This implies a 6-bit system with some redundancy. Perhaps DEC's early PDP machines (12-bit PDP-5 & -8, 18-bit PDP-1, 36-bit PDP-7 & -10) were on to something!

                        If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill

                        M Offline
                        M Offline
                        Member 10707677
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #19

                        I think it may be a trinary (+0-) system with significant null states.

                        The difficult may take time, the impossible a little longer.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • M Member 10707677

                          I think it may be a trinary (+0-) system with significant null states.

                          The difficult may take time, the impossible a little longer.

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                          D Offline
                          Daniel Pfeffer
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #20

                          A DNA codon consists of 3 base-4 digits (each digit may be one of A, C, G, or T), giving a total of 4^3 or 64 possible values. I fail to see how you could represent 64 states in trinary without some "forbidden" values.

                          If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill

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                          • D Daniel Pfeffer

                            A DNA codon consists of 3 base-4 digits (each digit may be one of A, C, G, or T), giving a total of 4^3 or 64 possible values. I fail to see how you could represent 64 states in trinary without some "forbidden" values.

                            If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill

                            M Offline
                            M Offline
                            Member 10707677
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #21

                            You are correct. That's what I get for trying to do complex math in the wee hours of the morning. Just as an aside, what would our computer math be like if the early computer developers had used three states for a bit instead of two?

                            The difficult may take time, the impossible a little longer.

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                            • M Member 10707677

                              You are correct. That's what I get for trying to do complex math in the wee hours of the morning. Just as an aside, what would our computer math be like if the early computer developers had used three states for a bit instead of two?

                              The difficult may take time, the impossible a little longer.

                              D Offline
                              D Offline
                              Daniel Pfeffer
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #22

                              It depends on which ternary notation you mean. If we used "standard" ternary notation (0, 1, 2), the increased complexity of the circuitry is very likely to make it uneconomical compared with binary notation. Calculation using balanced ternary (-1, 0, 1) has some advantages, but I question whether the increased complexity of the circuitry would make it more viable than binary. I note that only two models of ternary-based computers were built, both in the Soviet Union. Neither was a wild success. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setun[^] http://www.computer-museum.ru/english/setun.htm[^] If, however, we were to use ternary logic as representing "no", "maybe", and "yes" (i.e. one value implies that the datum is uncertain), we might have something new. I don't know of attempts to program "fuzzy logic" in ternary, but would be interested in any examples...

                              If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • realJSOPR realJSOP

                                Well, scientists announced they can now store data in DNA. One has to wonder if that's how life here got started - "Coded" DNA left on the surface of the petri dish that we call "Earth".

                                ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                                -----
                                You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                                -----
                                When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

                                M Offline
                                M Offline
                                Member 10205551
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #23

                                DNA encoding is slightly more complicated than a base four system. DNA uses triplets of four possible nucleotides (Adenosine, Cytosine, Guanine, and Thymine) to encode 21 different amino acids. However, the encoding has no frame of reference. That is, encoding can begin again shifted by 1 or 2 nucleotides. Additionally, the encoding is also represented on the reverse complement making a total of 6 frames of reference, and any or all may be valid. In a programmers world, this is like encoding a second (or third) program by shifting the starting op-code by 1 byte and getting another valid program. Even weirder, imagine shifting the start by 2 bytes, then taking the one's complement of the program and reversing the bit-order to get another valid program. We enforce encoding to have a definitive start, but DNA has no such restriction and allows for a much higher information content.

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                                • M Member 10707677

                                  You are correct. That's what I get for trying to do complex math in the wee hours of the morning. Just as an aside, what would our computer math be like if the early computer developers had used three states for a bit instead of two?

                                  The difficult may take time, the impossible a little longer.

                                  A Offline
                                  A Offline
                                  A A J Rodriguez
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #24

                                  An interesting article about ternary bases. http://bit-player.org/wp-content/extras/bph-publications/AmSci-2001-11-Hayes-ternary.pdf[^]

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                                  • N newton saber

                                    CDP1802 wrote:

                                    Hopefully such a massive and undeliberate mutation will not be able to survive.

                                    That's very insensitive to the massive and undeliberate mutations out here. Very insensitive, indeed. :((

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                                    P Offline
                                    PDeibel
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #25

                                    I can GROK that.

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