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The Standard Model is making me think of genetics in a new way (CRAZINESS) imlad Send a noteboard - 05/07/2013 07:40:44 PM

Okay, so I was reading a couple of articles from io9.com recently about the Standard Model of particle physics, and they kept talking about Symmetry and Supersymmetry, and how certain particles are actually essentially the same particle but really aren't (specifically it was saying this about electrons and neutrinos).

Then later in the evening I was watching something about genetics ("Decoding Neanderthal DNA" or something like that), and a crazy thought occured to me and I had to share this idea, to see if it makes sense to anyone else. Oh, and to clear up any misunderstandings I might have if someone can correct me.

NOTE: I am not a scientist, do not have a degree in any science, I just love reading about science and watching science documentaries. And coming up with crazy science-fictiony ideas when possible.

So, most of us know that genetics runs off of an "alphabet" of 4 letters: A, C, T, and G. Each letter only bonds to one other letter, forming pairs that make up the "rung" of the double-helix ladder. A binds to T, and G and C bind together.

Geneticists, when they read out our genetic code, basically only read one side of the ladder's rung, and know that when they see a T that the other side of that particular rung is A, and vice versa. Same goes for when they see a C or G.

Add in what I had just been reading about symmetry, and my mind (admittedly a bit effected at the time by some good old green herbs) came up with the idea that these base pairs could almost be thought of as particles like in the Standard Model.

Think of it this way: reading out our genetic code is like going through a crazy tarot deck that only has two different cards, but with countless copies of each card. Each card in the deck is a base pair, and like tarot cards can be dealt "upright" or "inverted" (or whatever the terminology they use in tarot readings, but I figure you know what I mean).

So the two cards in our genetic tarot deck are AT and CG, but they can also be revealed as TA and GC (inverted version of the card, like when you draw the tarot card The Tower but it is upside down).

And as I thought about this more, it occurred to me that in essence our DNA code is a "double binary" system in a way. Say AT is 0 and CG is 1. TA would be 0' and GC is 1' (I'm using " ' " to denote the difference, the fact it is reversed).

Yes, I know that there are no computers that can currently work in this way, we are stuck for now with 1 and 0, and maybe in the next 20 years we'll have some sort of quantum computer that can deal with "on," "off," and "both" and hopefully someday even "neither."

I realize that none of this really means anything significant for science, but does it make sense to anyone else, or is it just something that only makes sense when one is stoned outta their mind?

Death to the Regressives of the GOP and the TeaParty. No mercy for Conservatives. Burn them all at the stake for the hateful satanists they are.
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The Standard Model is making me think of genetics in a new way (CRAZINESS) - 05/07/2013 07:40:44 PM 746 Views
Well, I can clarify a bit - 05/07/2013 09:30:16 PM 340 Views
I admit thought processes under influence of pot aren't that logical - 08/07/2013 05:32:14 PM 405 Views
It is always about how many permutations you can set up - 08/07/2013 09:58:49 PM 283 Views

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