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Why Does a Particular Codon Code for a Particular Amino Acid?

April 16, 2012

DNA

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Origin of Life

Okay – I’m doing a bit of an experiment here on More Thinking. I’m going to try and communicate some of my ideas vis-a-vis my own videos. Nothing nearly as professional as some of the ones that I’ve found online, but good enough (I hope) to communicate the ideas I’m trying to get across).

Here is the first one. It asks a very simple question – why does a particular codon code for a particular amino acid (take a look at the video to understand what I mean).

Of course, this video will only make sense if you have first taken the time to understand what DNA is and how it works. If you haven’t, then now is the time to do so. If you have taken the time to understand DNA and how it works, then you are ready to start watching. Here goes:

To be continued…

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About Moshe

Moshe is the founder, researcher, writer, and all-around fix-it guy for MoreThinking.com

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  • Sammy Finkelman

    |>> why does a particular codon code for a particular amino acid

    There is no reason. It is a code. As a matter of fact, there is a different code used in mitochondrial DNA.

    But this brings up another question. How does that work?

    The answer is it only works, because there is code interoprting, code reading chemiocvals present. And why are they present? Because they are constantly manufactured. And what tells the cell what to manufacture? The same code.

    Life starts from life. It can’t start by itself. A virus is pure code and can’t do anything without getting some cell to read it.

  • http://morethinking.com Moshe

    Hello again Sammy,

    I agree with your answer that there is no reason, that is to say, there is no chemical or physical law or property which determines the code. An inherent aspect of a code is the mutual symbolic agreement among the various aspects of a code – such mutual agreement is an inherently intellectual

    [I being to make this point in the next article in this series: http://morethinking.com/2012/how-easy-is-it-to-type-the-letter-a/. I have more articles on this subject which I hope to publish after I finish researching them]

    With that said, what I am trying to do with this site is demonstrate the points that you just made. In particular, I want to demonstrate it for people who are not familiar with the science or who haven’t yet thought about the implications of what we have discovered.

    In terms of life starts from life – I’m not sure I would use the word STARTS (since we are discussing the origin of life – for instance, where did this code come from). I prefer to say that life is interrelated and integrated and that there is a big chicken and the egg issue here.

    For instance, I believe you were referring to the fact that you need DNA to create the proteins that read and process DNA. The problem is that you can’t create those proteins without the code in the DNA and you can’t process the code in DNA without those proteins. All the parts need to be in place for the system to work.

    Be well,

    Moshe