DNA

One interest of mine is DNA. DNA is so fascinating to me because of its specificity, as well as its randomness. In DNA, there are four bases that link together and form the double helix structure: adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine. Adenine and thymine may bond only with one another, as guanine and cytosine may bond only with one another. Very specific. When DNA is mapped, however, randomness happens by way of human choice. In refraction fragment length proliferation (RFLP) analysis, DNA is broken into strands by enzymes that break the base bonds according to certain patterns in the DNA. The broken strands are then separated according to size through gel electrophoresis. While labs may be consistent in the enzymes they use to break the DNA strands, there are vast numbers of different enzymes that cut according to different patterns. Thus, the same DNA can yield multiple maps. Very random, in my mind. RFLP analyses are pretty to look at, as well as the molecular structures, and may serve for interpretive 2-D compositions.