DNA: A life evolution tracking system?
A theory for the future analyzing the past
You’ve probably heard of DNA. I will start with a brief review of that basic function as an introduction. But that is not the question of this thesis. The main issue we will look at is: What is the purpose of storing so much data?
What is DNA?
DNA is short for desoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is the molecule that stores all the information for the body or organism to function properly. It is found in every living thing: animals, plants, fungi and bacteria.
The information stored in DNA is much more than just hereditary genes. Genes are only a fraction of 2% of the information needed to produce proteins. The other 98% produce nothing.
At the beginning of the research, scientists assumed if it did not produce proteins, it had no function. Over time, they found functions that were carried out by these non-protein-producing parts.
By now, only regulatory functions have been deciphered. There must be other functions that we do not know about. Ninety-eight percent is a lot to not know. This gives a lot of room for conjecture and philosophizing.
DNA is stored in the nucleus of euloretic cells. They form every living being. DNA could be understood as the instruction manual for each cell. This instruction directs the functioning of that cell.
It is also the molecule of heredity. That is its best known function. The DNA contained in the sperm and egg cells is passed on to the offspring. They interbreed and create a new and unique DNA.
Two human beings with the same mother and father also form different DNA. The only exception is when twins are identical twins. In this situation, they are an exact copy. Cloning also produces an exact copy, but that is another matter.
Organisms composed of more than one cell share tasks and live together in harmony. Each type of cell has its own function. Each cell knows its function, knows how it should act at each moment, and how to respond to each signal it receives.
All this information, from all cells, is contained in the DNA of the organism to which they belong. In other words, an organism has the same DNA in every cell. And, that DNA contains encrypted, so to speak, all the functions of that organism.
It is a tremendous database. The information is stored in the sequence of the approximately three billion base pairs that make up DNA. The base pairs are the nucleosides, which join the two strands of the double helix.
There are only 4 types of nucleotides, adenine (A), cytosine ©, guanine (g) and thymine (t). In other words, all the information encoded in DNA is written in a four-letter code. So much for the basics, a general overview.
What fascinates me and keeps me busy is the amount of information stored in DNA. It’s not just the information needed to make an organism function. That immense amount of information is difficult to comprehend.
One cell in your body contains all the information of all the cells in your body. Not just about their design, but about how they function and when to act.
The way of storing data is so efficient that all the information ever created by all human beings would fit without any problems. Tests are currently underway to copy the data storage system on computers.
It would be a far more efficient system than any known today. And, all this occurs in the 2.5% of DNA that we can understand. As I already mentioned, DNA contains hereditary information. That is the point that intrigues me.
We can deduce who your mother and father were. But also from your parents and their parents. And so on and so forth until all human beings arrive at a common ancestor.
There is evidence, in every cell of our body, that all human beings come from the same genetic crossbreeding that once occurred and created our species. It is a fascinating fact. The same is true for all other animals, plants, fungi and bacteria; all multicellular living organisms.
DNA also has information from life forms prior to the species of the organism to which it belongs. Let’s put it this way: our first common ancestor, who can be called human, had ancestors too. This information is also found in the DNA.
If we follow logic, this means that all living beings have a common ancestor. In other words, all animals, all plants, all bacteria and all living fungi have a common ancestor.
So far, all this reflection is logical and measurable in DNA. What strikes me is that the information of all life on this planet has a common ancestor. All living things have the same DNA base.
We can conclude that there must have been a first form of life that gave rise to all forms of life.
But DNA also had a predecessor. It is called RNA, ribonucleic acid. These two proteins are the only ones capable of storing information.
Here I begin to speculate. There is evidence that it could have been like that, but since what we are talking about was more than 3850 million years ago. There is no certain evidence. But it is interesting to have a theory, even if it is temporary, of how life originated on this planet.
For now, the scientific theories of how life originated on this planet trace back to that time. Where RNA gives rise to DNA.
But where does RNA come from? And what fascinates me the most is, because they have the ability to store data.
As far as I am concerned, the design information about life as we know it was created with the universe. It doesn’t make sense that something random would care about storing all the data. Chance doesn’t care to know what happened to life in this universe.
I do not believe that life on planet earth was designed and programmed to arrive at this current outcome.
Logical thinking indicates to me that it was designed to produce some kind of life, on some planet, given the ideal conditions, for some form of life to thrive.
Universal life is the result of an established process left to the randomness of circumstance.
The fact that all the evolutionary data is stored suggests a design, but it is impossible to know for sure.
I study the scientific papers on the subject and draw my own conclusions based on my logic.
The origin is not what strikes me most about DNA. The question that interests me most is: why? Why is the whole evolution of life recorded in every living being, from the beginning until now?
The fascinating thing is that it will continue to happen until the end of life. As each organism reproduces, it adds information to the DNA. And DNA continues to accumulate information about all life on this planet.
Everything in nature, and the universe, is created perfectly and has a purpose. Nothing is left to chance. That means that the recording of the data of every living thing has a purpose.
Someone or something will be able to read all the accumulated data before the end of the universe.
Is there something, outside the universe, interested in knowing exactly what happened to life in this universe?
There is reason to conclude that it is most likely.
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