"Paul Levinson - The Copyright Notice Case (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Levinson Paul)

the science -- but tell me everything, and spell it out as much
as you can."
She sipped the soda and squeezed the cup. "Glen was
working on a special facet of the human genome project."
I nodded. "The one that hopes to eventually identify and
map the function of every gene -- and every protein compound --
on human chromosomes."
"That's right," she said. "Except there are actually a
whole bunch of interrelated human genome projects. And this is
a special section of a special project. Early on -- about two
years ago -- the main team discovered some odd material at the
far edge on some X chromosomes."
"On all female chromosomes?" I asked.
"No, the material has so far been seen on only about eight
percent of the X chromosomes studied."
"Ok," I said. "And what do the researchers think this odd
gene is responsible for?" I knew that that area of the X
chromosome was home to at least one interesting human gene --
the so-called gay gene, still under intense investigation.
"Well, that's part of what makes this so unusual," Jenna
said. "The material's not really a gene, and doesn't seem
responsible for any behavioral or expressive trait."
"I'm not following you," I said. This is likely where the
Lieutenant had lost comprehension.
"Well, the material's chromosomal -- it's some sort of
protein code -- but it's not really a gene. Only five percent of
the DNA in our genome actually goes into genes. The rest is
sometimes called `junk DNA,' and I guess you could say our
little corner of the genome project has been prospecting for an
unlikely fortune of information in that junkpile. You know,
more clues as to how the human genome works as a whole -- how
proteins outside of the genes themselves prime them for
operation, act as regulating enzymes, that sort of thing."
"Ok," I said. "And how did Glen fit in?"
"Well, we've -- Glen's -- been trying to, well, read the
code on that odd genetic material."
"Come again?"
"The code seems amenable to some sort of binary
transformation -- you know, a mapping that would translate the
connections inside the protein complex into a series of yes and
nos, or ons and offs. Genes themselves operate on a four-part
code -- adenine binding to thymine, cytosine to guanine.
They're nucleotide bases, you know -- A and C on one side of the
helix zipper connecting to T and G on the other. I'm sorry, I'm
getting too technical for you--"
"Not at all," I said, though I could've lived without her
reciting the specific names of the nucleotide bases. This was
basic textbook stuff for DNA fingerprinting. "Please continue."
"Well, like I was saying, the special material that Glen
was working on actually has slightly different forms of the