Genes, genomes, and codes: Revisiting some key terms with multiple meanings

Authors

  • Evelyn Fox Keller Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.6.4083

Keywords:

code, codescript, central dogma, genetic information, genes and genomes

Abstract

Is a genome the full complement of an organism’s genes or of its DNA? Is genetics the study of genes or of heredity? Is the genetic code the mechanism for translating nucleotide sequence to amino acid sequence or to phenotype? Does «genetic information» refer to the sequences coding for proteins or to all DNA sequences? Each of these questions stems from an elision between one, concrete, meaning, and another, open-ended and ambiguous. Such elision invites the illusion that the ambiguity of the open-ended term has been resolved, and by implication, that the gap between actual achievement and promise has been closed. Yet, despite the phenomenal progress molecular biology has made, we remain without an adequate account of the organization of proteins into an organism. 

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Author Biography

Evelyn Fox Keller, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA).

Professor Emerita of History and Philosophy of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA). She is the author of several books, such as The century of the gene (Harvard University Press, 2000), Making sense of life: Explaining biological development with models, metaphors and machines (Harvard University Press, 2002) and The mirage of a space between nature and nurture (Duke University Press, 2010).

References

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Published

2016-04-15

How to Cite

Fox Keller, E. (2016). Genes, genomes, and codes: Revisiting some key terms with multiple meanings. Metode Science Studies Journal, (6), 135–141. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.6.4083
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Issue

Science grid: The public understanding of science (2016)

Section

Word of Science. The rhetoric of scientific communication

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