Secret Music is Hidden
in Genetic Code
Duarte, Calif. (AP) While searching for the chemical origins of
life, Susumu Ohno found something unexpected: a waltz.
Bored with tedious mathematical equations, the geneticist decided to convert chemical
formulas for living cells into musical notes. He figured listening to the complex
genetic codes, rather than staring at them, would make elusive patterns easier to detect.
In the process, he discovered that genes not only carry the blueprint for life they
also carry a tune.
The tunes he found were not just the mildly interesting random tones other geneticists
predicted. Although there is no very practical use for his musical research, Ohno
found genuine music, like music of the baroque and romantic eras, classical in structure,
sometimes with an uncanny similarity to the works of great composers.
Translated into sheet music performed on the piano, a portion of mouse ribonucleic acid
~ a complex genetic messenger substance ~ sounds like a lively waltz. Except for its
quicker tempo, parts of the mouse RNA waltz are dead ringers for passages in Frederic
Copin's Nocturne, Opus 55, No. 1, Ohno found.
More than anyone ever suspected, Ohno said, art imitates life.
"This is not surprising," Ohno said. "nature follows certain
physical laws-the universe obeys them, as does the process of life. Music follows
the same patterns as well."
Ohno suggests this genetic wellspring for music offers a possible explanation for the
origins of music in man and nature. It also might explain why certain melodies seem
"sad" while others seem "happy" - because, he said, humans are
genetically predisposed to hear them that way.
The musical score within a cancer-causing oncogene sounds somber and funereal, while
the gene that bestows transparency to the lens of the eye is filled with trills and
flourishes, airy and light.
Reversing the process-converting music to chemistry-works as well: When Ohno
translated a funeral march by Chopin from notes to chemical equations, entire passages
appeared identical to ca cancer gene found in humans, he said.
"What I think is at work here are underlying principles that govern many things -
a gene, a bird's song, a classical composition."
Ohno spends his days at the Beckman Research Institute in Duarte looking for these
underlying principles. In his quest, he has converted to music the genes from a
chicken's eye, from a rainbow trout, from slime mold, brewers yeast and the human brain.
He said his work demonstrates a pet theory-the principle of periodicity-which hold that
the universe tends to move from chaos to order and back to chaos in certain common
patterns.
(from an article in West County Times; January 5 1988)
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