What does it mean that DNA contains the “information” of life?
Put very simply, RNA is just one half of the well known double helix DNA molecule. If you think of DNA as a ladder, each side consisting of individual “rungs,” you can imagine slicing this ladder down from the top through the middle of each rung. This one sided ladder is basically RNA. Bear in mind that each rung in DNA is made up of two complementary nucleotides that only pair with each other. There are only a few of them – any one rung can be made up of adenine on one side and thymine on the other, or guanine on one side and cytosine on the other, along with a few other options. What’s important is that for any given nucleotide on one side of the rung there is only one option for the other side. Adenine always pairs with thymine, guanine with cytosene, etc. So while the structure of DNA requires both sides of each rung to be properly configured, the sum of the information in that DNA can be represented by using just one half of the double helix (each solo amino acid having an implied
