From: Scott Chase (ecphoric@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun 02 Feb 2003 - 20:32:01 GMT
>From: "Grant Callaghan" <grantc4@hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>Subject: Re: "minimum separabile" and the memetic code
>Date: Sat, 01 Feb 2003 08:01:31 -0800
>
>"Everybody knows that each amino-acid has its
>corresponding codon within the genetic code. If we
>accept all that I said above, we must also accept that
>each "synergistic activity of all the muscles which
>move the same joint", each "minimum separabile", has
>its corresponding "codon" within the MEMETIC CODE. In
>respect with the term "codon", I will name it "MEMON"."
>
>I nominate as a candidate for the memon what cognitive scientists call a
>"frame."
>
>Grant
>
>
>
I nominate it as a candidate for not making much sense. Looking at a table
on the reverse of the front cover of my genetics text (cited below) here in
my lap I see that the amino acid leucine (Leu) has 6 different triplets
which correspond to it in the genetic code: UUA, UUG, CUA, CUC, CUG, CUU. No
one to one correpondence here. Methionine and tryptophan have a single codon
which correspond to them AUG and UGG respectively, but they are exceptions
to the rule than each amino acid may have more than one codon which
corresponds to it. Arginine, Leucine, and Serine each have six.
Most codons correspond specifically to *an* amino acid of their very own
OTOH, but some are just involved in chain termination.
In summary, a given amino acid can correspond to several different codons,
but each codon itself can only correspond to one amino acid.
for example, cysteine can be specified by UGC or UGU. This is known as
degeneracy of the genetic code. Yet, UGU can only specify cysteine. This is
known as unambiguity of the code.
These contrasts can be found in a genetics text such as William Klug and
Michael Cummings _Concepts of Genetics_ (1994. MacMillan College Publishing
Company, New York, see page 451)
I leave it for the memetic romantics to shoehorn this mess into an analogy
between memes and genes.
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