The Dogman

Anyway, Papá was telling me how similar computers and genetics are.

All data stored in computers is made up of ones and zeros. It’s like a secret language.

If I wrote 1001010111100010110100011101000101111, all those ones and zeros (each one is called a bit) could mean something like “Hi, Señora Estrada”.

(It doesn’t really, but you see what I mean.)

I explained to Papá that bits work like a light switch so that they are either on (1) or off (0). He told me that computer programs are man’s answer to God’s programming!

He said that DNA is like all those bits (ones and zeros) and is God’s universal language for programming everything from pineapples to monkeys and human beings.

While bits are either 1 or 0, Papá said, the bases in DNA can be either G, C, A, or T.

DNA makes RNA makes protein – may dad said. He called it the Central Dogman of Molecular Biology.

At least – I thought he said Dogman. That would have been cool!

But it turns out he actually said ‘dogma’. It’s like ‘the central belief’.

Not as cool as a Dogman.