DNA: Life's Optimal Information Storage Molecule
Detailed study of the DNA molecule has revealed amazing life-friendly properties.
"For example, using computer models of the evolutionary process, postdoctoral fellow Stephen Freeland showed that our genetic code is nearly optimal in terms of protecting against errors. Such good design, argues Landweber, suggests the code is not an accident."
Also see : "Early Fixation of an Optimal Genetic Code," Molecular Biology and Evolution 17 (2000): 511-18 and "The genetic code is one in a million" J Mol Evol. 1998 Sep;47(3):238-48.
2) DNA has an incredible storage density.
"[S]toring information in molecules of DNA could allow for an information density of approximately 1 bit per cubic Nanometer, while existing storage media store information at a density of approximately 1 bit per 10^12 nm3. A single DNA memory could hold more words than all the computer memories ever made..." (Journey into Nanohousing—Information Integration of the Future)
3) Our "DNA system" has an error rate comparable with that of high tech storage devices (1 in 10^10). This is due largely to high fidelity error detection and correction schemes.
Life's Sudden Appearance
100 Megapixel Eyes
Often the design of our eyes is ridiculed by some, but we see that detailed study of the eye shows a high degree of design. From "Bionic eyes from Stanford"..
"The eye is a complex machine. It has more than 100 million photoreceptors. "If we compare it to modern digital cameras, for example, it will be 100 megapixels"
"And if electronic cameras do a good job of image processing, the eye does a spectacular job, compressing information before sending it to the brain through the 1 million axons that make up the optic nerve. "We have a built-in processor in the eye," Palanker said. "Before it goes into the brain, the image is significantly processed."
Brainy Facts
The brain has revealed several design evidences.
1) Brain avalanches may be optimal for information storage.
"New computer models now suggest that these brain avalanches may be optimal for information storage. " (Reference)
2) The building of the brain is highly specified.
"I strongly suspect that the day somebody actually figures out how the brain is organized they will discover to their amazement that there is a coding scheme for building the brain which is of extraordinary precision. The idea of randomness in biology is just reflex." Hubbard (Chaos: The Making of a New Science)
"My student and I we sit there often looking at our latest results and just going wow, isn’t the brain just amazing. It’s just elegant. It’s just.. the aesthetic beauty of trying to understand something as prodigiously complex as the human brain is a great motivator." (Reference)
3) Having 100 trillion connections, the brain is easily the most complex thing in the universe.
4) There is a built-in model of gravity in our brain. From NASA Research News..
"Such rigid, inflexible behavior supports the notion that the brain contains a built-in model of gravity -- like a specialized computer in our heads that calculates acceleration." (Reference)
5) The brain processes about 10 billion bits of sensory information per second and quickly compresses that down to 40 bits for conscious processings. (The User Illusion)
6) The brain has a specialized built-in calculator.
"The brain has a built-in calculator that can function independently of its language processors, suggests research that contradicts some linguistic theories." (Reference)
Fractal Design
Perhaps your exposure to fractals is limited to screen savers, but in nature, fractal patterns abound. Consider what was said about blood vessel formation, "The fractal structure nature has devised works so efficiently that, in most tissue, no cell is ever more than three or four cells away from a blood vessel. Yet the vessels and the blood take up little space, no more than about five percent of the body. It is, as Mandelbrot put it, the Merchant of Venice Syndrome - not only can't you take a pound of flesh without spilling blood, you can't take a milligram. This exquisite structure - actually, two intertwining trees of veins and arteries - is far from exceptional. The body is filled with such complexity. In the digestive tract, tissue reveals undulations within undulations. The lungs, too, need to pack the greatest possible surface into the smallest space..." (From Chaos: Making a New Science by Gleick)
