I have never understood the intricacies of modern biology and DNA and RNA remain something of a mystery. So I liked this article about reverse engineering the BionTech/Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, because it uses the metaphor of computer code and programming (which I understand) to explain the biology (of which I have only a vague idea).
RNA is the volatile ‘working memory’ version of DNA. DNA is like the flash drive storage of biology. DNA is very durable, internally redundant and very reliable. But much like computers do not execute code directly from a flash drive, before something happens, code gets copied to a faster, more versatile yet far more fragile system.
For computers, this is RAM, for biology it is RNA. The resemblance is striking. Unlike flash memory, RAM degrades very quickly unless lovingly tended to. The reason the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine must be stored in the deepest of deep freezers is the same: RNA is a fragile flower.
Each RA character weighs on the order of 0.53·10⁻²¹ grams, meaning there are around 6·10¹⁶ characters in a single 30 microgram vaccine dose. Expressed in bytes, this is around 14 petabytes, although it must be said this consists of around 13,000 billion repetitions of the same 4284 characters. The actual informational content of the vaccine is just over a kilobyte. SARS-CoV-2 itself weighs in at around 7.5 kilobytes.
If you're like me and understand computers pretty well but haven't kept up with modern biology, then this article is for you. It is long and does get quite technical, but the author does a good job of explaining the basics before delving into the more complex and arcane material. Even if you don't understand it, it'll give you an appreciation of just how far biological science has advanced.
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