The Most Important Molecule. From the Structure of DNA to Biomedicine of the 21st Century

Of all the things that surround us, life seems to be the most inexplicable. We are used to it always being around us and within ourselves, and we have lost the ability to be amazed. But go into the forest, look at it as if you were seeing it for the first time, at the trees, grass, flowers, at birds and ants, and you will be overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness in the face of the great mystery of life. Is there something common in all this, something that unites all living beings, whether they are human or a microbe invisible to the eye? What determines the continuity of life, its rebirth again and again from generation to generation? These questions are as old as the world itself, but it was only in the second half of the 20th century that we first managed to gain answers to them, which turned out to be not too complicated and, most importantly, dazzlingly beautiful. This book tells how these answers were obtained and what they consist of. The central place in the science of molecular biology, which aims to answer the eternal question: “What is life?”, is occupied by the DNA molecule. This is mainly what this book will discuss. The author pays great attention to those questions where physics and mathematics play a particularly important role in finding solutions. This distinguishes this book from many others devoted to DNA.