DNA

The genetic messages encoded within our DNAmoleculeswill provide the ultimate answers to the chemical underpinnings of human existence.
James D. Watson

Deoxyribonucleic acidis a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms (with the exception of RNA viruses). The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in regulating the use of this genetic information. Along with RNA and proteins, DNA is one of the three major macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life.

See also:

Evolution

RNA

Quotes

The intricate DNA genetic code makes it possible for the individual to inherit not only simple physical characteristics, such as size, shape and chemical makeup, but also a whole set of propensities for particular social behavior which goes with a given physiology. ~Lionel Tiger

DNA neither cares nor knows. DNA just is. And we dance to its music. —Richard Dawkins

• DNA neither cares nor knows. DNA just is. And wedanceto itsmusic.
  • Richard Dawkins,River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life(1995), p. 133.
• It is raining DNA outside. On the bank of theOxfordcanal at the bottom of mygardenis a large willowtree,and it is pumping downyseedsinto the air... It is raining instructions out there; it’s raining programs; it’s raining tree-growing, fluff-spreading,algorithms.That is not ametaphor,it is the plaintruth.It couldn’t be any plainer if it were raining floppy disks.
  • Richard Dawkins,The Blind Watchmaker,p. 111.

• There is enough storage capacity in the DNA of a single lily seed or a single salamander sperm to store theEncyclopædia Britannica60 times over. Some species of the unjustly called ‘primitive’ amoebas have as much information in their DNA as 1,000 Encyclopædia Britannicas.
  • Richard Dawkins,The Blind Watchmaker,p. 116.

• It is so efficient that all theinformation...necessary to specify the design of all thespeciesof organisms which have ever existed onthe planet...could be held in a teaspoon and there would still be room left for all the information in everybookever written.
  • Michael Denton,molecular biologist and "intelligent design" creationist, said of the genetic code (DNA) inside a cell, inEvolution: A Theory in Crisis,p. 334.Quoted inThe Watchtowermagazine, October 1, 1994.

• Molecular biology has also shown that the basic design of thecellsystem is essentially the same in all living systems on earth from bacteria to mammals. In all organisms the roles of DNA, mRNA and protein are identical. The meaning of the genetic code is also virtually identical in all cells. The size, structure and component design of the protein synthetic machinery is practically the same in all cells. In terms of their basic biochemical design, therefore no living system can be thought of as being primitive or ancestral with respect to any other system, nor is there the slightest empirical hint of an evolutionary sequence among all the incredibly diverse cells on earth.
  • Michael Denton,inEvolution: A Theory in Crisis,page 250. Quoted inAwake!magazine, January 22, 1990;Fraud in Science—The Greatest Fraud of All.
• The results are plainly legible to those who study the human genome today. Between a fifth and a quarter of the DNA of mostAfrican-Americanscan be traced back toEuropeans.At least half of the inhabitants ofHawaiiare of 'mixed' ancestry. Likewise, the DNA of today'sJapanesepopulation indicates that there was intermarriage between early settlers fromKoreaand the indigenous Jomonese people. Most of the Y chromosomes found inJewishmales are the same as those found among otherMiddle Easternmen; for alltheir bitter enmity,PalestiniansandIsraelisare genetically not so very different. TheevolutionistRichard Lewontinfamously calculated that around 85 per cent of the total amount of genetic variation in humans occurs among individuals in an average population; only 6 per cent occurs amongraces.The genetic variants that affectskincolour,hairtype andfacialfeatures involve an insignificant amount of the billions of nucleotides in an individual's DNA. To some biologists, this means that, strictly speaking, human races do not exist.
  • Niall Ferguson,The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West(2006), p. xliii

• DNA studies do not indicate that separate classifiable subspecies exist within modernhumans.While differentgenesfor physical traits such as skin and hair color can be identified between individuals, no consistent patterns of genes across the human genome exist to distinguish one race from another. There also is no genetic basis for divisions of humanethnicity.People who have lived in the same geographic region for many generations may have some alleles in common, but no allele will be found in all members of one population and in no members of any other.
  • Human Genome Project^{[citation needed]}

• The way DNA encodes information is analogous to how we arrange the letters of the alphabet into words and phrases with specific meanings. The word rat, for example, evokes a rodent; the words tarand art, which contain the same letters, mean very different things. We can think of nucleotides as a four-letter alphabet. Specific sequences of these four nucleotides encode the information in genes.
  Many genes provide the blueprints for making proteins, which are the major players in building and maintaining the cell and carrying out its activities.
  • Jane B. Reece, Lisa A. Urry, et al.Campbell Biology(10th ed., 2014), Ch. 1. Evolution, the Themes of Biology, and Scientific Inquiry

• Does theCovid-19 vaccinechange your DNA? Not directly, no. But yes, thanks to your ownimmune system,your DNA is a tiny bit altered after you get anyvaccine.
  • Steven Salzberg,Yes, The Vaccine Changes Your DNA. A Tiny Bit. That’s A Good Thing.,Forbes,29 November 2021

• There's no genetic basis for any kind of rigid ethnic or racial classification... I'm always asked is thereGreekDNA or anItaliangene, but, of course, there isn't... We're very closely related.
  • Bryan Sykes, geneticist and Oxford professor. The Watchtower, July 1, 2011, page 23; Does God value one race above others?

• Now we know that the intricate DNA genetic code makes it possible for the individual to inherit not only simple physical characteristics, such as size, shape and chemical makeup, but also a whole set of propensities for particular social behavior which goes with a given physiology.
  • Lionel Tiger,anthropologist, in"Male Dominance? Yes, Alas. A Sexist Plot? No.; Not a sexist plot",The New York Times(25 October 1970).

• When finally interpreted, the genetic messages encoded within our DNAmoleculeswill provide the ultimate answers to the chemical underpinnings of human existence.
  • James D. Watson,one of the scientists credited with discovering the structure of the now famous DNA molecule. In"The Human Genome Project: past, present, and future."Science,6 April 1990; 248:44-48.

• Loveis merely a trick the DNA plays to replicate itself.
  • the character Tyr Anasazi played byKeith Hamilton Cobbin the episode “Star-Crossed” of Season 1 of the American-Canadian television seriesAndromeda