Relax, brethren. I do not plan to discuss anything Bible-related today. Since my target pew-fillers are atheists and believers in evolution, some parishioners were getting sweaty palms after several sermonettes in a row discussing why religion is the #1 cause of atheism. Let’s get back to science.
Think for a moment about Xerox. Ricoh. The mind of Minolta. Over the past 20 or 30 years, copiers have gone from a then-astounding 8 pages per minute to copiers today that can churn out entire booklets in less than a minute, collated, stapled – printed on both sides of the page, too.
Also, ponder data storage. If you are anywhere north of a certain age, you can easily recall the standard repository of knowledge in days gone by: 86 pounds of encyclopedia volumes covering an entire sagging shelf of a bookcase. Alas, encyclopedia salesman are a relic of the past. All those books and every word they contain could be held on a CD or two and popped in to a computer for retrieval. Speaking of computers, I can’t quote source material, but I read somewhere that the average new car today has an on-board computer that far exceeds the computers of early manned NASA missions of the 1960s. Data storage devices have grown more and more voluminous while shrinking ever smaller. You can hold 30,000 songs in your shirt pocket. We are often justifiably amazed at each new breakthrough in greater capacity and smaller size.
Sometimes, however, combining the two – that is, copying stored data, especially large amounts of it – isn’t quick, and it isn’t flawless. A copy of a copy of a copied copy might not be nearly as crisp as the original. Emailing a large file can take whole minutes. Of course, the granddaddy of data storage and blinding fast replication is DNA. Nothing compares to it. Each cell contains billions of pieces of information. It copies itself with flawless accuracy and astonishing speed. It is more or less incorruptible: forensic scientists can retrieve DNA from a month-old crime scene or a centuries-old archaeological dig.
Did you know that scientists have synthesized artificial DNA? They have. They have encoded it with all kinds of digital media – audio files, images, and text files – and later retrieved the data with 100% accuracy. They estimate that a single gram of artificial DNA (0.04 oz.) could hold as much data as 3 million CDs.
I want each of you to go to your quiet place. Your smart-phone-free zone. Deliberate over these matters. Meditate on the elegant sophistication and incredible complexity of the natural world. Compare nature with man’s accomplishments which, although amazing, are admittedly quite crude by comparison. One, is the product of exhaustive research by the finest minds; the other, the more advanced, complex and intricate of the two, is said to be the product of happy coincidence, trial and error, random chance, and blind luck.
Ponder that.
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