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Thu 26 Apr, 2012 06:36 am
Does it refer to "actually being performed at the time of hearing or viewing?"
Context:
The human genome consists of all the DNA of our species,
the hereditary code of life. This newly revealed text was 3 bil-
lion letters long, and written in a strange and cryptographic
four-letter code. Such is the amazing complexity of the infor-
mation carried within each cell of the human body, that a live
reading of that code at a rate of one letter per second would
take thirty-one years, even if reading continued day and night.
Printing these letters out in regular font size on normal bond
@oristarA,
Right.
This is basically saying that if a human being were to read the DNA code aloud, at a rate of one letter per second, they would be doing that for thirty-one years.
Reading it aloud is the main point here. (As opposed to looking at it and reading it silently.)
A second is about the time that it take to sneeze.
Accordingly, an ordinary person will be able to speak several letters per second,
requiring a small fraction of those "31 years"; maybe about 1/5 of that time.
David
Five words per minute (which is essentially what reading letters is ) is very very fast, tho they are are monosyllabic (except for W), maybe three letters per second is more feasible. So it would be about ten years. You'd be bored out of your tree well before then. And if you misread one letter, you'd have to start over. That's the rules. It's the perfect task for David.
Thank you all.
Does it read as /laɪv/? (Not /lɪv/, which serves as a verb)
@OmSigDAVID,
ERRATUM:
"A second is about the time that it take to sneeze"
shud have been:
A second is about the time that it take
S to sneeze.
David
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