264                        The Bible According to Einstein

Biology²⁵⁶

The science of life shall be biology. Biology shall be based on chemistry, whose foundation shall be physics. And physics shall be man’s knowledge of the fundamental laws of Nature.
     Now all living things shall respond to their environment, use energy, and reproduce. The energy shall come from chemistry through bonds of molecules, from the Sun by way of photosynthesis, from the heat of thermal vents in oceans in the Earth, and so on. Living things shall be highly opportunistic, responding to surroundings, sensing what is there, taking advantage of each special situation, seeking instant benefit, and, at a basic level, being as greedy as can be, for if the "profit" is not seized, it shall be lost and those that lose shall die. And finally, living things shall reproduce by splitting into two, by sex, by cell division, by "casting off" an offspring and so on.
     Cells shall be the basic building blocks, the biochemical "factories" of life. Cells shall be made of molecules, which in turn are made of atoms. The atoms shall be nuclei surrounded by electrons. And the protons and the neutrons in the nuclei shall each be formed of three bound quarks. Ye, the living, shall be full of electrons and of quarks.
     Although the diversity of life on Earth shall be quite great – several million different species shall exist and many millions more shall have gone extinct – all living things shall share the same genetic code, for all shall have descended from a common ancient primogenitor. Ye, the living, shall be related through a shared ancestry. Ye shall be complex living systems embedded in a larger ecosystem called the Earth.

____________________

²⁵⁶ The Book of Biology is unfinished, for human knowledge about the living is limited. Each day a new page of biology is written. The pages are and will be assembled. And when the book is finished, man will have the understanding to answer the fundamental questions: What makes that which is dead, dead, and what makes that which is alive, alive? And when the book is finished, man will have the power to manufacture life. And man shall, at that point, have one of the great powers of a god.

The New Testament                                       265

Chapter II: The Molecules of Life

Now the body of an animal shall be made from the organic compounds, which are molecules of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and other elements. Carbon shall be the backbone of organic substances: Through its ability to form four atomic bonds, it shall chain itself and other atoms together in organic compounds. Life shall be made of macromolecules that are made up of hundreds, thousands or sometimes tens of thousands of atoms. The main macromolecules of the body shall be carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids.
     Now carbohydrates shall be macromolecules that store energy. And sugar, starch and cellulose shall be examples. The energy in carbohydrates shall be tapped by living organisms.
     Now lipids shall be fats and fat-like substances with two main purposes: they shall store energy and they shall form building materials for cells.
     Now proteins shall have a variety of purposes. Certain proteins shall be the building blocks for cells. And for example, collagen shall be used for bones, tendons, ligaments and skin, while keratin shall be in the outermost skin-layer, nails and hair. And proteins such as myogen, actin and myosin shall make up much of muscle tissue. And soluble proteins such as albumins and globulins shall appear in blood and milk. Now proteins shall be essential for building new tissue and for repairing injured tissue. And they shall also be a source of energy. Respiratory proteins such as hemoglobin shall carry oxygen in blood. Antibodies shall defend an organism against invading foreign agents.
     Now certain proteins called enzymes shall stimulate and speed up metabolic processes, which are the processes creating biological changes from physical and chemical reactions in a living organism. Many enzymes shall be like unto business brokers who bring together two distinct bodies so that they more quickly interact. Some enzymes shall be like unto bankers who lend money so that business can be speeded up – the money shall be like the energy needed to activate a chemical reaction; such enzymes shall be catalysts, reducing barriers so that molecules can more easily react. In digestion shall enzymes break down nutrients, such as proteins, fats and carbohydrates, into smaller and more basic molecules. And some enzymes shall guide these more basic molecules until they reach the bloodstream, while others shall assist in the formation of larger complex molecules from smaller basic ones. And enzymes shall help in storing energy and help in its release. For life shall enzymes be essential. Thus for life shall proteins be essential.
     Now nucleic acids shall instruct – they shall give purpose to a cell and tell cells what to do. And they shall encode information and then disseminate it to the other biological components. And during reproduction, nucleic acids shall pass genetic information from one generation to the next.

266                        The Bible According to Einstein

Chapter III: Cells

Now cells, the basic building blocks of living things, shall be made of mainly proteins, water, lipids and nucleic acids. Cells shall be alive, for they shall take in food, get rid of waste and grow, and sometimes shall divide and reproduce. Lipids shall make up the membranes that encase a cell. And the lipid casing shall permit only certain substances to enter or to leave a cell. Now there shall be many types of cells with many features and with many functions. And for example, there shall be blood cells, nerve cells, muscle cells, et cetera.
     And cells of the same type that are strung together shall be tissues. And there shall be four main types: (i) muscle tissues, (ii) connective tissues, such as those which support and join together body parts, (iii) epithelial tissues, which line the body such as skin, and (iv) nerve tissues, which make up the brain and nerves. A component of two or more tissues that performs an important biological function shall be an organ.

Chapter IV: The Human Body

Now the symbol of thought shall be the brain. And the symbol of love shall be the heart. And the symbol of vital force shall be the lungs. And these symbols shall be brought together in a human body.
     And the human body shall consist of one-hundred-trillion cells. And encoded in each cell shall be a text of a hundred-million pages of genetic information. The cells shall be organized in several sophisticated systems, which are as follows.
     The skeletal system shall include all cartilage and bones. A bone shall be a dense, calcified, rather rigid tissue, while cartilage shall be more flexible yet still be capable of withstanding a substantial pressure. Now the skeletal system shall supply stability to the body, a framework to support the softer parts. One component shall be the backbone, which shall run down the middle of the back. And the skeletal system also shall provide protection, as illustrated by the rib cage – it shall protect the heart, the lungs and other vital organs. The bones of the movable joints, such as the elbows, knees and shoulders, shall be held together by the ligaments – they shall tie two bones together.

The New Testament                                       267

     Now the muscles of the muscular system shall be made of fibers that are strung together like the strands inside a cable. Just as many strands give such a cable strength, many fibers shall give a muscle strength. But unlike a cable’s strands, muscle fibers are elastic, enabling them to contract and then relax, so as to implement a motion. Thus the purpose of a muscle shall be to move a body part. Thus the purpose of the muscular system shall be movement. And the heart, being an example, shall pump to make blood circulate. Other internal muscles shall move food through the digestive tract. Still others shall be connected to the bones by tendons. Thus a tendon shall tie a muscle to a bone, enabling it to move a leg, an arm, a hand or jaw.
     Now the cutaneous system, consisting of the skin, the hair and nails, shall have three main purposes: (i) to protect the body from external agents and from injury, (ii) to provide a region of receptors for the sense of touch, and (iii) to regulate the body temperature by retaining heat and by excreting sweat.
     Now the digestive system shall process food by converting it into nutrients that cells shall use. The digestive system shall start at the mouth, where the teeth shall chew, tear and grind food into smaller parts. Saliva shall be added to lubricate the food, thereby making it somewhat easier to swallow. But the saliva shall also provide enzymes to commence the process of breaking down the food. Next the food shall enter in the stomach, where some acids and some gastric juices shall be added. The stomach shall serve as a storage tank until the food is sent to the intestines. In the intestines, digestive enzymes and bacteria such as escherichia coli shall completely break down molecules of food: The pancreas shall supply protein-digesting and sugar-splitting enzymes, while the gall bladder, by supplying bile, shall aid the digestion of the fats. Eventually, proteins shall be broken into amino acids, and fats and carbohydrates shall be decomposed into useful building blocks. Next cells along the walls of the intestines shall absorb the processed nutrients and supply them to the blood. And the blood shall carry nutrients throughout the body to the cells. Some digestive products shall be stored in the liver for further processing and later use. Waste food products shall first enter the colon, then the rectum, and finally exit by the anus.
     Now the respiratory system shall process air. Air shall enter the nose and mouth, go down the trachea and pass into the lungs, where three-hundred-million microscopic alveoli shall permit oxygen to diffuse through membranes and to pass into the blood. And at the same time, the alveoli shall allow carbon dioxide in the blood to pass into the lungs, go up the trachea and exit out the nose and mouth. Thus old blood entering the lungs shall have its carbon dioxide, which is a waste of metabolic processes, removed, while oxygen, a fuel of these same metabolic processes, shall be infused in it. Man shall breathe in oxygen and exhale CO₂.

268                        The Bible According to Einstein

     Now the circulatory system shall be the internal transportation system of the body. The heart shall pump blood, a cell-containing fluid, through the arteries and veins as follows. Blood enriched with oxygen shall exit the lungs and enter the left upper chamber of the heart, where it will be pumped to the left lower chamber. Then the blood shall branch out into the body, passing through arteries of ever smaller size. Eventually, it shall enter capillaries,²⁵⁷ where the oxygen shall be distributed to cells and carbon dioxide shall be absorbed. The carbon-dioxide containing blood shall head back to the heart through veins of ever larger size. After entering the right upper chamber, it shall be pumped to the right lower chamber and then back to the lungs. Around and around the circulatory system shall blood flow. Now many cells in blood shall be either white or red, while the liquid in which they float shall be called plasma. And the blood shall carry nutrients, gases, hormones, wastes and other substances to and from the cells. The wastes shall be removed via the urinary system: Kidneys shall extract the waste by placing it in urine in a tank-like bladder. Now the lymphatic system shall be a subsystem of the circulatory system. Lymph, a clear watery fluid containing white cells, shall be transported through lymphatic vessels, thereby connecting certain tissues with the bloodstream. At various locations, lymph nodes²⁵⁸ shall destroy bacteria and filter out foreign substances and bodies. Now the spleen shall regulate the red-blood-cell count, at times destroying red blood cells, at times storing them for later use. And the spleen shall also manufacture lymph and produce antibodies to attack the foreign substances and agents.
     Now the reproductive system shall allow human beings to multiply their numbers. And females shall provide the eggs, which males shall fertilize with sperm. A fertilized egg shall develop in a woman’s womb, first as an embryo then as a fetus. And the mature fetus shall exit from the vagina as a newborn human being.
     Now the endocrine system shall consist of glands that regulate the body’s functions using hormones. Hormones shall be messengers that trigger chemical reactions. Now the hypothalamus in the brain shall control the pituitary gland at the cranium’s base. This shall control the other glands, such as the adrenal, parathyroid, thyroid and sex glands. The thyroid gland shall regulate the rates of metabolic chemical reactions; the parathyroid shall control the calcium metabolism; and the adrenal glands shall influence salt balance and control the metabolisms for carbohydrates and for water. And in emergencies, adrenalin shall be secreted to stimulate activity. The pancreas shall secrete insulin into the blood to assist in the metabolism of the carbohydrates.

____________________

²⁵⁷ These are tiny thin-walled tubes.
²⁵⁸ The human body shall contain about five-hundred lymph nodes.

The New Testament                                       269

     Now the nervous system shall be the communication network of the body. The messengers shall be the neurons. The brain shall be the master center of control. And the signals shall be transmitted by the neurons as electrical and chemical impulses. Signals shall move through the nervous system both toward and from the brain. In the latter case, impulses from the brain shall pass through the spinal cord in the backbone and be distributed to the body through a branch-like set of nerves. Among things, such impulses shall make muscles move. Now some signals shall move toward the brain. And for example, the sensory organs for touch, taste, smell, sight and sound shall send signals via sensory neurons to the brain. The sensory neurons shall have receptors that translate environmental information into the nerve pulses. The tongue shall taste. The nose shall smell. The ears shall hear. The eyes shall see. The skin and hands shall feel.
     Now the human body shall be continually attacked by foreign organisms, such as bacteria and viruses, and non-living objects, such as dust. The immune system shall protect the body against such foreign substances. The first line of defense shall be the skin. Immune-defense cells such as T cells and B cells shall defend the body against invaders. And the thymus, in the chest, shall make T cells,²⁵⁹ while bone marrow shall make B cells.²⁶⁰ And when a foreign substance invades the body, B cells shall detect it and attack. And the B cells shall produce some antibodies. And antibodies shall latch onto a foreign body and attack it. And they shall label the foreign agent so that it becomes a target for other cells, such as the macrophages. Macrophages shall engulf a foreign agent and process it so that it may be targeted by T cells. Certain T cells shall divide and shall attack the foreign agent.²⁶¹ And other T cells shall aid and regulate the antibody production of the B cells. The antibodies shall then pass through the human body in search of similar foreign agents. And if a massive invasion be underway, the rapid deployment force shall then go into action. And B cells shall quickly divide and multiply. And they shall produce the antibodies in great numbers.
     Each antibody shall be able to attach itself to only certain foreign agents. And for example, antibodies that defend the human body against polio shall be useless for defending it against typhoid. So it shall be necessary to have many different types of antibodies to attack the many different types of foreign agents. The immune-defense cells shall circulate through the human body in the bloodstream and in the lymphatic system.
     Now there shall be three generic types of T cells: Helper T cells shall enhance the production of antibodies by B cells, killer T cells shall secrete chemicals that kill infected cells, and suppressor T cells shall suppress the generation of antibodies by B cells. The latter shall be instrumental in terminating B-cell and antibody production after the invading force has been destroyed.

____________________

²⁵⁹ Actually, T cells are derived from bone marrow and only mature in the thymus.
²⁶⁰ At any given moment, two-trillion B cells shall be in a human’s bones.
²⁶¹ T cells are responsible for organ-transplant rejection.

270                        The Bible According to Einstein

     And the immune system shall be like unto an army. The antibodies shall be like unto soldiers with unique fighting capabilities and carrying and deploying different armaments. And their armaments shall be effective against specific invading foreign forces. The lymphatic system shall function as supply lines. Now the B cells shall be like unto officers that recruit, equip and organize the antibodies. And these B cells shall be responsible for keeping the defense system well supplied with the appropriately trained forces. And when there is a war, B cells shall also participate in fighting. Now the T cells shall be like unto sergeants that direct the other cells but fight as well. And B cells shall communicate with T cells to assist them in their duties.

Chapter V: Cellular Biology

And since the cell is the basic building block of life, to understand the cell is to understand the "atoms" of biology. Now a living organism shall be composed of one or many cells. An amoeba shall be an animal consisting of a single cell. The smallest living organism on the Earth shall be the PPLO, or pleuropneumonia-like organism, with a diameter of one-tenth of a micrometer and a weight of a millionth of a billionth of a gram. And compared to the amoeba, the PPLO shall be lighter by a million times. On the other scale of things, a human being shall be composed of a hundred-trillion cells. Now the size of typical cells shall be small with diameters ranging from a fraction of a micrometer to several micrometers. Cells shall interact chemically with one another. And for example, certain cells shall adhere to certain other cells. Now cells shall be able to communicate by signals: One cell shall secrete signalling molecules such as the hormones, which shall then bind to the receptors of a second cell. And by these means, cells shall be able to send messages to one another, allowing growth to be initiated or causing metabolic processes to speed up or slow down.
     Now each cell shall contain a watery substance, the cytosol, which shall be full of dissolved organic substances such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and so on. Thus the cytosol shall provide a medium in which organic substances and organelles can move about. Now organelles shall be components inside the cell that perform specific functions. And the most important organelles shall be the nucleus, the mitochondria, the lysosomes, the endoplasmic reticulum, the Golgi apparatus and the chloroplasts. Now the nucleus shall contain the genetic information – it shall be a cell’s "brain." And the mitochondria shall provide energy – they shall be a cell’s "battery." And the lysosomes shall digest organic materials – they shall be the "stomach" of a cell. And the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus shall synthesize certain biological molecules, process them, sort them and direct them to proper locations in a cell. In plant cells, chloroplasts shall provide energy by photosynthesis. Now there shall be hundreds of lysosomes and thousands of mitochondria in a cell, but there shall be just one nucleus, because a cell with two nuclei would be like unto a creature with two brains. And like the cells themselves, organelles shall be encased by membranes that shall control, restrict and permit the flow of organic substances into and out of organelles.

The New Testament                                       271

     And water shall be the major constituent of living organisms. And cells, for example, shall be three-fourths water. Thus the behavior and properties of molecules in water shall be important. An acid shall be a substance that produces in water excess hydrogen cations, that is, H⁺’s.²⁶² And a base shall be a substance that reduces in water the number of H⁺’s. In other words, an acid shall be a proton donor, while a base shall be a proton acceptor. Now neutral water shall neither be acidic nor be basic. Basic water shall try to react with substances to end up neutral. Likewise, acidic water shall try to react with substances to end up neutral. And biochemical molecules shall often be acids and be bases. And for example, an amino acid shall be an acid, and a nucleotide base shall be a base.
     Now the nucleus shall house the molecules of DNA. A gene shall be a portion of the DNA chain that codes a protein. The total genetic information of an organism shall be its genome. In the genome of a bacterium, there shall be a couple thousand genes. In the genome of a mammal, there shall be a couple hundred-thousand genes.
     Now every cell of a particular living organism shall contain the selfsame DNA. However, in a given cell, some genes shall be inactive, while others shall be active. Most importantly, different kinds of cells and their function shall be determined by which genes are turned on and which genes are turned off.
     The DNA strands in a nucleus shall be millions of times longer than the cell’s diameter. Thus DNA shall have to wind up into a compact form. And histones shall be small proteins around which the strands of DNA can wrap – a histone shall function for a strand of DNA as a bobbin functions for a thread. A DNA molecule wound up by histones shall be a chromosome.
     Now plants, using the energy in sunlight and combining it with carbon dioxide and water, shall produce sugar molecules and oxygen, the latter as a waste. The sugar molecules shall store the energy of light for later use. And this process shall be photosynthesis.
     Now when molecules meet within a cell, they shall chemically react. And "chemical pandemonium" shall ensue with atoms rushing to be rearranged. And molecules shall combine or split. The presence of enzymes shall assist and speed up these chemical reactions. But some reactions shall not proceed unless energy is externally provided. And the most important energy-providing molecule shall be adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. ATP shall be manufactured in cells from sugars and other organic molecules such as fatty acids and amino acids. And energy shall be stored in the chemical bonds²⁶³ of ATP. And when the bonds are broken, energy shall be released.

____________________

²⁶² H⁺’s is pronounced "H pluses." An H⁺ is a proton.
²⁶³ Such bonds are discussed in Chapter VII of the Book of Chemistry.

272                        The Bible According to Einstein

     Now RNA shall perform two main purposes: to speed up reactions or to send messages. And the latter shall be messenger RNA, or mRNA. They shall allow the information in DNA to be disseminated.
     One purpose of RNA shall be assisting synthesis of proteins. Now DNA shall act as a template where single-strand RNA can be manufactured. The process of producing a specific protein shall begin with enzymes that "unzip" a stretch of DNA by breaking bonds that hold the DNA’s two strands together. With this part unwound, the DNA’s genetic "protein blueprints" thus shall be exposed. Next, other enzymes shall use the exposed DNA region to build an mRNA that is encoded with the blueprints. When a ribosome in the cytosol comes in contact with this mRNA, it shall become a programmed ribosome. Then it shall begin to move along the mRNA, reading codons²⁶⁴ as it goes. At the same time, a relatively short tRNA, or transfer RNA molecule, shall bring an amino acid to the programmed ribosome; the amino acid type being determined by a codon. The programmed ribosome shall assemble each amino acid to the next to form the protein. Remarkably the ribosome, the work-horse of protein manufacturing, shall itself be composed of proteins bound to molecules of ribosome RNA, or rRNA.
     And the nucleus of a cell shall be like unto a library. And the DNA strands shall be like unto a stack of books, while a gene shall be like unto a single book. Messenger RNA molecules shall be like unto librarians. The ribosome shall be like unto a borrower of books.
     A cook goes to the library to find a new recipe and requests a cookbook from the librarian. The librarian searches the stacks, finds the book and brings it to the cook. The cook upon returning to the kitchen of a restaurant, prepares a new entree. First, he calls on his assistants to fetch certain ingredients. They go and get them and bring them to him. Then the cook combines the ingredients to make the new entree.
     After having read the recipe, the cook shall be like unto a programmed ribosome, while the assistants to the cook shall be like unto tRNA. And the ingredients shall be like unto amino acids, while the entree shall be like unto a protein.
     Thus DNA, RNA and ribosomes shall manufacture proteins from amino acids. And some newly manufactured proteins shall directly enter a cell’s cytosol. But other newly manufactured proteins shall pass to the endoplasmic reticulum where they further shall be processed, while certain proteins shall go to the mitochondria, the chloroplasts, the Golgi apparatus and other organelles. And tens of thousands of different types of proteins shall be manufactured and distributed this way.

____________________

²⁶⁴ Codons code animo acids. See Chapter VI.

The New Testament                                       273

     Now cells shall reproduce by growing and dividing. Growing shall be achieved by ingesting molecules from the surroundings and by processing them in biochemical reactions. After cell growth, DNA shall reproduce itself: Each of the two strands that make up the helix structure shall, with the help of enzymes, unwind, separate and reproduce a second strand. Then these two new strands shall combine with the old strands to produce two helix structures. In other words, each of the two new DNA’s shall consist of an old strand and a new. Then when all DNA molecules are duplicated, the cell shall stretch and break in two. This process shall be cell division. And the cells resulting from division shall be the daughter cells. And when a cell divides, chromosomes²⁶⁵ shall pass genetic information to the daughter cells.

Chapter VI: Microscopic Biology

Now biological macromolecules shall be built from smaller organic molecules such as simple sugars, amino acids, nucleotides and fatty acids. Simple sugars shall be the constituents for carbohydrates, while amino acids shall be the basic building blocks for proteins. Thus a string of amino acids shall a protein be. A chain of nucleotides shall constitute a nucleic acid. And fatty acids, which involve hydrocarbon CH₂ chains, shall be the main components of lipids and fat molecules.
     Now carbohydrates shall be molecules made from simple sugars. The word "carbohydrate" meaning "watered carbon" shall well describe their structure. Carbohydrates shall be the principle product of plant photosynthesis – in chemical bonds shall the energy of sunlight so be stored. Thus carbohydrates shall be an energy source for living organisms. And they shall be the most abundant organic compounds on the Earth. The smallest shall be simple sugars such as glucose, fructose and galactose – each of these contains six carbons, twelve hydrogens and six oxygens (C₆H₁₂O₆) but differs from each other in the way their atoms are arranged. Glucose, from the Greek word "glykys" meaning sweet, shall be found in honey, fruits and blood. And simple sugars such as ribose (C₅H₁₀O₅) shall appear as a component in molecules of RNA and DNA.

274                        The Bible According to Einstein

     Now two simple sugars that are linked shall be a double sugar. And sucrose, which is common table sugar and is composed of one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule, shall be an example. And lactose, which is a sugar found in milk, shall be another double sugar – it shall be made from a galactose and a glucose. Maltose, which is found in sprouting seeds and malt, shall be two glucose sugars bound together. It shall be a digestive product of polysaccharides. Simple and double sugars shall be sweet.
     Now polysaccharides shall be macromolecules consisting of many simple sugars. And cellulose, the principal structural component of plants and wood, shall be a polysaccharide. It shall be a linear molecule composed of thousands of glucose units. Starch, which is found in seeds, roots and stems, shall be another polysaccharide, consisting of branch-like chains of glucose. And glycogen, which is found in the liver and the muscles of the mammals, shall be the analog of starch for animals. And chitin shall be an important polysaccharide for insects and for arthropods.
     Now to tap the energy of a double sugar or a polysaccharide, an organism shall first have to break the molecule into the simple sugars. In the case of breaking starch to simple sugars, dextrin, which is a polysaccharide made from eleven simple sugars, shall often be produced at the beginning of digestion. And later, dextrin shall be further decomposed.
     Now lipids, which are greasy to the touch, shall be organic compounds which store energy for long-term future use and which form certain structural components of an organism. Although they shall not dissolve in water, they shall dissolve in organic solvents such as alcohol and ether. Triglycerides, a major ingredient of animal and human fat, shall store twice as much energy as carbohydrates. And the lipid lecithin shall be a main component of the membrane of a cell.
     Now a chain of methylene groups shall be the "backbone" of a fatty acid molecule. A methylene group shall be one carbon atom and two hydrogen atoms, or -CH₂-. Now the dash on each side of "-CH₂-" shall indicate a "dangling bond." The two dangling bonds in -CH₂- shall join CH₂ to other atoms. An unsaturated fatty acid shall be a fatty acid for which at least one pair of methylenes, -CH₂-CH₂-, is replaced by a double-bonded -CH=CH- group. A saturated fatty acid shall have no double-bonded groups. Now a fatty acid shall often begin with a methyl group, H₃C-, of three hydrogens and one carbon, and often end with a carboxyl group of -COOH. The carboxyl group shall be responsible for the acidity of fatty acids. Now some fatty acids shall have side groups attached to the main backbone chain. Triglycerides shall involve three fatty acids joined by a molecule of glycerol. To exploit the energy contained in lipids, living organism shall first store the energy in fatty acids in ATP, and later, they shall liberate this energy in metabolic processes.

The New Testament                                       275

     Now proteins shall be fundamental molecules for life, the second largest ingredient in cells, and the dominant organic macromolecule in terms of its importance. A chain of typically, many hundreds of amino acids shall comprise a protein. Proteins shall be able to fold up into compact sphere-like structures: This folding shall be vital for their functions and their interactions. Now random chains of amino acids shall not fold into a useful form – such proteins are worthless for an organism’s purposes. It was evolution that led to Life’s selection of the useful proteins. And during hundreds of millions of years, Earth’s life forms learned to manufacture beneficial proteins and to ignore the useless ones.
     Although amino acids are made at random in minute quantities throughout the Universe, it shall be plants that produce amino acids on Earth in sufficient quantities to maintain life. Now an animal shall not be able to directly manufacture the amino acids – an animal shall obtain them directly from the plants or indirectly from the proteins of the other animals. Thus the original source of all amino acids shall be the plants. Now hundreds of amino acids shall exist in Nature, but only twenty shall be the building blocks for useful proteins. And they shall be cysteine, proline, alanine, threonine, serine, glycine, aspartate, asparagine, glutamate, glutamine, lysine, arginine, tyrosine, histidine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, methionine, leucine, isoleucine and valine.
     Each of the twenty amino acids shall be assigned a letter code. And cysteine shall be C, proline P, alanine A, threonine T, serine S, glycine G, aspartate D, asparagine N, glutamate E, glutamine Q, lysine K, arginine R, tyrosine Y, histidine H, tryptophan W, phenylalanine F, methionine M, leucine L, isoleucine I, and valine shall be V.
     And at one end of an amino acid shall be an amino group consisting of two hydrogens and a nitrogen, H₂N-. The dangling bond of nitrogen shall bind the H₂N to the rest of the amino acid. At the other end shall be a carboxyl group -COOH. And the dangling bond of carbon shall bind the COOH to the rest of the amino acid. Between the two ends shall be a hydrogen atom, a carbon atom and a side chain. An amino acid shall be distinguished by its side chains, which provide for different chemical capabilities. The simplest side chain shall be one atom long – a hydrogen atom. And this amino acid shall be glycine, H₂N-CH₂-COOH.
     And when a ribosome manufactures a protein from amino acids, it shall join the carboxyl and amino ends, and produce a waste water molecule of H₂O. Thus -COOH shall join with H₂N- to produce -COHN- and H₂O. And the linking group -COHN- shall be a peptide bond. Now when digestion breaks down a protein into amino acids, the process shall be reversed: Water shall be added to break the peptide bonds and form carboxyl and amino ends.
     And amino acids shall be like unto a toy construction set of twenty types of basic building pieces. And it shall be possible to join the pieces using small universal linking tubes, the peptide bonds. And the structures so obtained by attaching pieces shall be proteins. And with many building pieces and unlimited linking tubes, the number of such structures shall be enormous. Thus the number of proteins shall be almost limitless.

276                        The Bible According to Einstein

     And Nature shall utilize these structures to form the fundamental components of life and living organisms. The processes of eating and digesting food shall be like taking someone else’s ready-made construction and tearing it apart to use the parts.
     Now protein chains shall have names determined by the sequence of amino acids. And for example, the pancreas hormone protein glucagon shall be HSQGTFTSDYSKYLDSRRAQDFVQWLMNT. And although this "word" may not make sense in English, it shall biologically make sense. So "HSQGTFTSDYSKYLDSRRAQDFVQWLMNT" shall be in the biological dictionary of protein words. And it shall represent the protein chain histidine-serine-glutamine-glycine- . . . -asparagine-threonine. Now although the protein glutamate-isoleucine-asparagine-serine-threonine-glutamate- isoleucine-asparagine-tryptophan-alanine-serine-alanine-glycine-arginine- glutamate-alanine-threonine-serine-cysteine-isoleucine-glutamate-asparagine- threonine-isoleucine-phenylalanine-isoleucine-cysteine-serine-alanine- isoleucine-asparagine-threonine shall not be in the biological protein dictionary, it shall make sense in English.
     Now an antibody shall be composed of four small protein chains – two identical heavy chains and two identical light chains. These protein chains shall originate from four types of genes – variety genes, or V genes; diversity genes, or D genes; joining genes, or J genes; and constant genes, or C genes. Now there shall be more than a hundred types of V genes, a dozen types of D genes, four types of J genes and one C gene. And when V, D, J and C genes are assembled to make a heavy chain, they shall be thousands of different combinations. Thus there shall be thousands of different heavy chains. Likewise, when D, J and C genes are assembled to make a light chain, there shall be hundreds of different combinations. Thus there shall be hundreds of different kinds of light chains. And when the light and heavy genes are combined to make an antibody, the possibilities shall number in the millions, so that antibody types shall number in the millions.
     Now a nucleotide shall be a sugar-phosphate²⁶⁶ molecule attached to a nitrogen-containing base. And a chain of nucleotides shall be a nucleic acid; the phosphate of one nucleotide shall bind to the sugar of the next. And the most important nucleic acids shall be deoxyribonucleic acid and ribonucleic acid. In ribonucleic acid, or RNA, the sugar in the nucleotides shall be ribose (C₅H₁₀O₅), while in deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, it shall be deoxyribose (C₅H₁₀O₄).²⁶⁷

____________________

²⁶⁶ The phosphate shall be negatively charged PO₄.
²⁶⁷ This "sugar" is ribose with an oxygen removed. The "deoxy" in the name for DNA indicates that each "sugar" in the nucleotides of DNA is missing an oxygen.

The New Testament                                       277

     Now DNA shall consist of two long strands interwoven in a helix. The bases in the nucleotides of DNA shall be four basic types: adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine. And A shall stand for adenine, C for cytosine, G for guanine, and T shall stand for thymine. And a DNA molecule shall be specified by listing the nucleotides in one of its two strands – a DNA sequence shall be the name for this, a long list of letters that "codes" the DNA. And for example, the sequence for one DNA strand of herpes shall be CTATGATGACAC . . . CGACCCTGCAGC. Now the list of letters of the second strand shall be determined from the first, for the two strands shall fit together like two parts of a zipper – A and T shall fit together, and G and C shall fit together. And ye shall say that A is complementary to T and that T is complementary to A. Likewise shall ye say that G is complementary to C and that C is complementary to G. And for example, the other strand in the herpes DNA molecule shall be GATACTACTGTG . . . GCTGGGACGTCG. Now it shall be two hydrogen bonds²⁶⁸ that bind the A and T. And three hydrogen bonds shall bind the C and G. But neither A and C, nor A and G, nor T and C, nor T and G shall bind. So hydrogen bonds shall tie the two strands in DNA together. And DNA shall be like unto a twisted ladder with double and triple bonds for rungs.
     Now most importantly, DNA sequences shall encode biological instructions. The nucleotides shall act as letters of Life’s alphabet. Three letters in a row shall be a codon. A codon shall be like unto a word. So DNA shall be like unto a text with a thousand or ten-thousand words. And the sentences shall encode the information. A few codons shall be punctuation – they shall say when a sentence starts and when it stops.
     Now RNA shall differ from DNA in three main ways: (1) the sugar in the nucleotides, (2) the replacement of thymine with uracil, and (3) the structure, which is single-stranded for an RNA. Hundreds or thousands of nucleotides shall be contained in a chain of RNA. The four nucleotides, adenine, cytosine, guanine and uracil, shall be the units in the chain. Now U shall stand for uracil. And U and A shall be complementary. Thus uracil in RNA shall play the role that thymine plays in DNA.
     And when RNA is manufactured, DNA shall act as a template in which complementary nucleotides are made. Thus a DNA sequence such as . . . TACCCGAGGTAGCCGCGTCGT . . . shall produce an RNA molecule of AUG-GGC-UCC-AUC-GGC-GCA-GCA. And the codons AUG, GGC, UCC, AUC and GCA shall yield the amino acids methionine, glycine, serine, isoleucine and alanine. Thus the AUG-GGC-UCC-AUC-GGC-GCA-GCA series of RNA shall yield the protein chain methionine-glycine-serine-isoleucine-glycine-alanine-alanine. And so the TACCCGAGGTAGCCGCGTCGT region of the DNA molecule shall provide the information for producing the protein chain MGSIGAA.

____________________

²⁶⁸ See Chapter VII of the Book of Chemistry.

278                        The Bible According to Einstein

     Thus the codons in a region of DNA shall code the letter words of proteins. And in this manner, the language of the DNA shall be translated into the language of Life, thereby allowing DNA to manufacture RNA, proteins and itself. And with proteins, RNA and DNA, life shall be. And let it be known to thee and all around thee that the "secret of Life" shall be hidden in the DNA: It shall contain the code of Life.