Software Engineering might be science; but that’s not what I do. I’m a hacker, not an engineer.
~ Jamie Zawinski.
A quick fact about me is I’ve studied B.S. Biology before and took the course BIO 16N (DNA Structures). One of the most important things that I’ve learned was that DNA will always start at a specific codon which is AUG. The AUG is the start codon; otherwise no protein will be synthesized. Then there are only 3 types of stop codons, which are UAG, UGA, UAA.
For the non-biologists reading this, here is the translation: a codon is a three letter sequence in the genetic code, and every protein’s recipe must begin with the “START” codon and end with one of the three “STOP” codons. It is the genetic equivalent of a well formed function: a defined entry point, a defined exit, and no protein gets built unless both are in place.
🧠 Final Thoughts
This has been a short post as I only want to remember this minor detail. Some facts are like that: they sit in your memory precisely because they refused to be forgotten, and writing them down is how you keep them.
The funny thing about studying biology and later becoming a programmer: DNA turned out to be a language with strict syntax, start codons and stop codons and error handling, and it prepared me for code better than I ever expected. Thanks for reading.