tangents

news & views

by del mcintire

Proponents of the belief in genetic causes of homosexuality may soon find increasing scientific support for their views. Much is yet to be learned about genetic sex and sexual abnormalities, deviations, etc., now ascribed to psychological causes. Some of these may eventually find their explanation in as yet obscure genetic conditions it appears.

Government scientists, Marshall W. Nirenberg and J. Heinrick Matthaei reported at Christmas that they have succeeded in partially cracking the "genetic code" which is the key to the reproduction of all living matter.

Hailing the work as being of "major importance," spokesmen for the National Institute of Health said the research might eventually make possible the creation of synthetic hereditary materials for use in treating certain diseases involving an hereditary defect, such as diabetes and gout. It might also make possible a better understanding of cancer, and an increased understanding of normal hereditary processes-for example, the mechanism by which similar physical characteristics of the face, etc.

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are passed on from generation to generation within a given family. The research might also shed light on the mechanism by which one group of chemicals in a developing embryo result in a heart, while another results in a kidney, and so on.

The "genetic code" it was explained by the Drs. is a system of messages between two chemicals contained in the nuclei or hearts of all living cells. These chemicals are called, respectively, deoxyribonucleic acid-DNA-and ribonucleic acid-RNA. RNA, DNA are the stuff of which genes are made.

Together, these two nucleic acids. work to bring about the development of new cells from the original ones. The theory is that the DNA acts as a general storehouse of genetic information and that the RNA serves as a kind of messenger boy to transmit the information out of the original cell and into those subsequently produced. DNA and RNA are subject to a variety of different arrangements or sequences which become the building blocks of all of us. So, maybe this is how we got this way.