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From: 6065833@pucc.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: information content of DNA
Message-ID: <2188@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU>
Date: Sat, 4-Apr-87 15:27:07 EST
Article-I.D.: PUCC.2188
Posted: Sat Apr  4 15:27:07 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 5-Apr-87 14:09:16 EST
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Organization: Princeton University - Computing and Information Technology
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Disclaimer: Author bears full responsibility for contents of this article

John Chambers writes:
 
>>a discussion of various aspects of DNA coding, quantity and form.
>...
>One observation I haven't seen yet is the peculiarity of DNA called "reading
>frames"  This effectively triples the number of amino-acid sequences a given
>chunk of DNA encodes.  Multiply this by two for the complementary strand.
>...
>I wonder if anyone has ever built a computer with the possibility of multiple
>"reading frames".  Consider an 8-bit memory, but a 16-bit instruction size.
>If you start executing at address A and at A+1, you get two possibly very
>different programs.
 
My mother once asked me to explain the basics about computers:  what bits and
bytes are, ect.  She was confused about something;  eventually I figured out
that what she really wanted to know was HOW the computer knows where an 8-bit
word begins and ends, given that there are only 2 "letters" in alphabet, and
no punctuation or spaces allowed.  This is the "reading frame" question from
the other side.  I'm actually quite surprised that she, who has never even
touched a computer to date, came up with such a discerning question.  Most
people who use computers (as opposed to programming them) seem never to think
about this at all (and I've dealt with thousands of such people).
 
Una Smith   6065833@PUCC
 
I thought signature files were silly until I realized I usually forget to
identify myself.  No longer.  Please forgive my apparent rudeness.