DNA

The Genetic Code

First 1000 lines of Chromosome One of the Human Genome. 61,010 bytes.
This is the first 60,000 ‘letters’ of chromosome one of the draft public domain human genome, formatted in arbitrary 60 column lines. This represents a portion of the structure of the double helix DNA molecule. Each letter in the text (A, C, G and T) represents one ‘base pair’ of nucleotides. They are called pairs because each nucleotide has a complementary one on the other strand. The letters are grouped into sets of three, known as ‘codons’. Each codon is translated into one of 20 amino acids. The sequence of amino acids determines how proteins are constructed, which are the building blocks of all life on earth.

If you want to be picky, this is actually an arbitrary set of base pairs from an arbitrary human chromosome. However, this particular sequence is of historical importance, because it was at the start of the first file of the human genome project released to the Internet.

Strangely enough, the symbol for medicine since distant antiquity has been two snakes entwined in a spiral pattern around a staff. Foreshadowing? Ancient knowledge? This coincidence has yet to be explained.