aSobolev's Institute of Mathematics of Siberian Division of Russian Academy of Sciences, Koptyuga pr. 4, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia
bDepartment of Geology, Washington State University, Webster Hall, Pullman, WA 99164, USA
Abstract:
The amount of publications devoted to the rise and structure of the genetic code is ever-increasing, which include semantic and structural analyses of the code as well as the problem of the origin of the code among others. The genetic code consisting of its triplet structure and canonical sets of nucleotides and amino acids was previously suggested to be a frozen accident or the result of accidental selection in the process of the evolution of a prebiotic system. These ideas are reviewed in this paper. It becomes clear that the information code is intrinsically related to the physical laws of the universe, and thus life may be an inevitable outcome of our universe. The lack of success in explaining the origin of the code and life itself in the last several decades suggest that we miss something very fundamental about life, possibly something fundamental about matter and the universe itself. Certainly, the advent of the genetic code was no “play of chance”.