A Collège de France coproduction - CNED
Extract
" My research has often touched on human genetics and, like all researchers in this field, I am very impressed by the recent sequencing of our genetic heritage. Today marks exactly fifty years since Watson and Crick discovered the double helix. The 2.9 billion base pairs have now been largely deciphered, revealing some 31 000 genes. This information can be thought of as the vast score of an orchestra of 31 000 instruments playing without a conductor or musicians. Each instrument starts to play when it receives a signal, at the right moment, from another instrument. When instruments play in harmony, a joyful biology is perceived. Dissonance, on the other hand, is the cause of pathological disorders.
As with this virtual orchestra, life at all levels depends on the reception of signals and their transduction into physiological action. Biologists have yet to fully understand the mechanisms of signal transduction, but several key principles have been identified... "
