TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Researchers discovered that DNA encodes two kinds of information, not just one:

Since the genetic code was deciphered in the 1960s, scientists have assumed that it was used exclusively to write information about proteins. UW scientists were stunned to discover that genomes use the genetic code to write two separate languages. One describes how proteins are made, and the other instructs the cell on how genes are controlled. One language is written on top of the other, which is why the second language remained hidden for so long.

There’s still so little we know about how life, and how intelligence, works. If we are just now discovering something as fundamental as what kinds of information DNA encodes, then our understanding of how DNA passes down meaning across generations is inherently dim. Along with a very incomplete understanding of how the brain (not just human brain) functions, both in the micro and macro level, biological life remains very much a mystery.