According to an article I read on reddit, the human genome is about 3 gigabases long.
A base is either A, T G or C. That means they can be represented by the binary numbers 00, 01, 10 and 11. So, 2 bits can code for any base. 3 Gbases = 6 Gbits = 750 Mbytes
750 megabytes is about the amount of data you can put on an average CD. You can put your complete genetic code on a single CD. We are not yet in the world of Gattaca with its genome-on-a-piece-of-paper uber-technology, but we’re pretty close.
1 CD = 10 hrs of mp3 music = an average movie (compressed) = a typical 2000-era video game = all the genetic information necessary to manufacture 1 Homo sapiens.
That’s not even considering all the intragenic junk there is. It really makes you think just how “advanced” we are, evolutionarily (or creationarily). Either we (as a species) are really not as intricate as we would like to think we are, or God is a really good coder.
Comments 3
lol, nice article, haha, could understand la, God just used ATGC and created life on earth haha, 4 strings? is that a brilliant coder or what!
eh, all the best for 2008, gah, i should just write this on your wall -.-
Posted 03 Jan 2008 at 7:38 pm ¶Mib, you know that you are apparently not solely made up of your genome. DNA is not the only information you need to construct a Homo Sapien. You forgot about the unique data of fingerprints embedded in the malphigian layer of the skin on your fingers, as well as the unique patterns of the capillary networks in your retina. Each of these information are not embedded in the DNA.
There are other unique information for a Homo Sapien who have actually been alive for a moment. There’s those neural connections that are present in the brain, not captured by DNA. These neural connections represents experiences, learning (ie. conditioning) and memory. The same applies for other species and perhaps they have their other unique identification features that transcends the DNA.
You are studying medicine, don’t make a fool of yourself leh. God’s probably a good coder, but he invented more than a single programme language for coding organisms.
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 10:04 pm ¶Hi,
Just coming by to report a bug on your CCIP for HOI2 - event 2468 sleeps tech teams, but does not wake up new ones. Get back to me at the e-mail address up top (if you can see it at all - if not, I’ll stop by this blog post again later).
(btw, for future bugs, where do I get to you or whoever is maintaining this mod these days? the bug tracker isn’t set up it seems.)
Thanks for all the amazingness that is that mod!
Asa
Posted 24 Nov 2008 at 9:40 am ¶Post a Comment