Rebooting the Genome

Abstract

With the notable exceptions of Butler and Miescher, in the nineteenth century the information concept as applied to biological molecules did not extend to information error and the need for its detection and correction (Chapter 2). Miescher in 1892 thought that: “Sexuality is an arrangement for the correction of these unavoidable stereometric architectural defects in the structure of organized substances” (Chapter 3). While referring to “left handed coils” being “corrected by right-handed coils,” at that time he was unable to relate this to “nuclein,” a new substance he had discovered, later known as DNA. However, he appreciated that correction would require some sort of yardstick (i.e. “right hand coils”) to permit the fact of error in a molecule (i.e. “left hand coils”) to be detected, and then appropriately corrected.