Simon, man is undoubtably the most complex information-processing system on earth. The total number of bits handled daily in all information-processing events occurring in the human body is approximately 3 x 10²⁴. This includes all deliberate as well as all involuntary activities, the former comprising the use of language and the information required for controlling voluntary movements, while the latter includes the control of the internal organs and hormonal systems. The number of bits being processed daily in the human body is more than a million times the total amount of human knowledge stored in all the libraries of the world, which is about 10¹⁸ bits.
Quite a few people are six feet tall. If unravelled the DNA molecule of any cell in one’s body is approximately seven feet long. The information in a single DNA strand is the equivalent of many sets of Encyclopedias. Think about it, the fertilized ovum is the size of a pinhead. That nucleus supplies all the information to construct a person.
That is why the DNA molecule is viewed as an Optimal Coding System:
1) As seen the storage in a living cell must be done within the smallest possible space.
2) As the number of characters of the code increases, the complexity of the execution machinery will have to increase. So the four base pairs are basic, yet their application is quite extraordinary.
3) According to the DNA zipper, the code “alphabet” would be even, the strands being complimentary.
4) In order to reduce errors it is necessary to incorporate redundancy. The significance of redundancy is that it provides flexibility without error, e.g., codons GAA and GAG both specify the aminoacid glutamic acid. Even if GAA is copied ‘incorrectly’ as GAG, it also codes for glutamic acid.
Conclusion: Scientist uses advanced algorithms to predict DNA controlling the genes (to turn them on and off). They also use an information theoretical framework and coding theory to study the DNA repair mechanism, which is viewed as a genomic error correction system. Their proposed framework for DNA-repair enables them to describe this functionality within the DNA molecule quantitatively and algorithmically. Thus, the coding system for living beings is optimal from an engineering standpoint.