Biology

Molecular Biology

At the molecular scale, biology is an information-processing system of staggering complexity. DNA stores the genome — roughly 3.2 billion base pairs encoding approximately 20,000 protein-coding genes, plus vast regulatory networks in the non-coding regions. Transcription, translation, and post-translational modification form a cascade of information transformation from digital code to three-dimensional molecular machines. Epigenetics adds another layer: chemical modifications to DNA and histones that alter gene expression without changing the sequence itself.