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From: spector@brillig.umd.edu (Lee Spector)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Information Capacity of Human Genome
Summary: Lots of info in human genome.
Keywords: Intelligence, DNA, big
Message-ID: <14470@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 10 Nov 88 15:18:55 GMT
References: <1651@ndsuvax.UUCP> <349@uceng.UC.EDU> <42136@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> <393@uceng.UC.EDU> <40841@aero.ARPA>
Sender: nobody@mimsy.UUCP
Reply-To: spector@brillig.umd.edu.UUCP (Lee Spector)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science,
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In article <393@uceng.UC.EDU> dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny) writes:
>The information content of the human genome is ~750 MB, ...

I have been told by a geneticist (I don't have any other reference) that
if you take the folding of the genetic proteins into account (and not
just the sequence of bases) then the informational content of the 
human genome is MUCH larger than this.
(Apparently the pattern of folding does have "informational content" - 
it affects which traits are expressed, etc.)  He didn't give me an exact
figure, but he indicated that the number was significantly larger than
the memory of any existing computer.

   - Lee Spector  (spector@brillig.umd.edu)