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The Art, Music And Computer Science Of DNA
Build6 writes "As part of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA's double-helix structure, many news publications are writing about what has been done with the discovery so far; The Economist has a very interesting one about DNA's use in art and music. ... You can read all about it either by picking up a copy of The Economist (it's well worth the money, I've subscribed for over a decade), or online." And Clint Harris writes "As part of its series commemorating the 50th anniversary of 'the first scientific description of DNA' NPR recently aired a story comparing DNA to software (RealAudio or Windows Media). 'For many, the best analogy for the way DNA works is that it's like a computer program at the heart of every cell. Some of its programming tricks bear an uncanny resemblance to ones the human brain has dreamed up...DNA is [like] spaghetti code because nature has been tinkering with the system for billions of years like a bad programmer.'"
I've been pleasantly surprised by all the attention the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA has gotten.
It got to be the Google logo. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories has been very active in celebrating this. Among a few other things, they've had a really nice lecture series to commemorate the event.
I'm a little bit closer to the whole thing since I've done some genetics work (mostly at the Columbia Genome Center). My current work involves some genetic manipulation, but that's not the main focus.
Also, I happen to personally know James Watson. I first met him when he spoke at my commencement. But, I shouldn't tell that story, because it has some racist (and very amusing) content... which would only get me modded as a troll. I've kind of worked with him a bit since then, and he's really a very nice, down to earth, intelligent guy. He hasn't really let this whole thing go to his head.
Anyway, it's very nice to see the general public taking a little bit of interest in science. Maybe this will help to turn some of the scientific illiterates into elites...
Down with Saudi Arabia!!!
It was not the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA, it was the 50th anniversary of the publication of Watson and Crick's paper saying that DNA possibly has a double helix.
:p
It's kind of funny, everyone seems to be making this mistake, I heard the vice president of Clonaid talk just yesterday, and he said the same thing. Not that Clonaid is a legitimate company.
The "Sonic Gene" mentioned in the Economist article is not the only one. I attended university where one of the piano professors has been working on a project like this for many years now.
.mp3s here. This has been a pet project of his, and it's definitely worth checking out. His personal site is available here as well.
His name is Brent D. Hugh, and he has downloadable
Happy listening!
Actually that link doesn't give all the information. While it is true that the Cadeuceus was the staff of Hermes and had two intertwined snakes, it doesn't explain why it's associated with the medical profession. Asclepius was the greek god of medicine. According to myth, he carried a staff which he used to heal. That staff had only one snake around it. Somewhere along the way, the Cadeuceus and the staff of asclepius were mixed up.