A blistering challenge

THE official version of genetics is fairly straightforward. Genes are encoded in a molecule called DNA. This molecule is a double-stranded helix made from four different types of sub-molecule. These types are interchangeable, and can thus appear in any order in a strand. Reading the sub-molecules in groups of three (essentially, genetic “words”) yields a message. The machinery of a cell can translate this message into a protein. And proteins are the molecules that do most of the work in a cell. Hence genes control cells. Hence, also, changing the order of the sub-molecules means that the message gets changed, and with it the protein.