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Double Helix
This nOde last updated November 27th, 2004 and is permanently morphing...
(9 Ix (Jaguar) / 17 Keh (Red) - 74/260 - 12.19.11.11.14)

double helix noun
The coiled structure of double-stranded DNA in which strands linked by hydrogen bonds form a spiral configuration.

• 604 track _Double Helix_ MP3 by Digitalis off of _All Boundaries Are Illusion_compilation CD from 21-3
• 604 track _Triple Helix_ MP3 by Planet B.E.N. and Spiralkinda
• samples:  "A person from another planet might disagree with you" - from the film _The Day The Earth Stood Still_ (vhs/ntsc) ; "Earth, biosphere. A complex, subtly balanced life support system."
• Soyfer,V.N., Potaman,V.N., _Triple Helical Nucleic Acids_, (Published by Springer Verlag, 1996; ISBN: 0387944958) This is an exhaustive reference about triple-stranded DNA.  It is quite technical, but very useful for people in the field.
• tech-house track _Twisted Horns (Twist Of Melon Mix)_ (mixed) MP3 (224k) by Twisted Pair
• book _The Path to the Double Helix : The Discovery of DNA_ by Robert Olby
• drum and bass track _Vampyros Lesbos_ MP3 by Twisted Pair
• Watson and Crick
• tv movie _Race For The Double Helix_.  character of Watson played by Jeff Goldblum.

My investigation had led me to formulate the following working hypothesis:

In their visions, shamans take their consciousness down to the molecular level and gain access to information related to DNA, which they call "animate essences" or "spirits." This is where they see double helixes, twisted ladders, and chromosome shapes. This is how shamanic cultures have known for millennia that the vital principle is the same for all living beings and is shaped like two entwined serpents (or a vine, a rope, a ladder ... ). DNA is the source of their astonishing botanical and medicinal knowledge, which can be attained only in defocalized and "nonrational" states of consciousness, though its results are empirically verifiable. The myths of these cultures are filled with biological imagery.  And the shamans’ metaphoric explanations correspond quite precisely to the descriptions that biologists are starting to provide.

Like the axis mundi of shamanic traditions, DNA has the form of a twisted ladder (or a vine ... ); according to my hypothesis, DNA was, like the axis mundi, the source of shamanic knowledge and visions. To be sure of this I needed to understand how DNA could transmit visual information. I knew that it emitted photons, which are electromagnetic   waves, and I remembered what Carlos Perez Shuma had told me when he compared the spirits to "radio waves": "Once you turn on the radio, you can pick them up. It’s like that with souls; with ayahuasca ... you can see them and hear them." So I looked into the literature on photons of biological origin, or "biophotons."

Jeremy Narby - _The Cosmic Serpent: DNA And The Origins Of Knowledge_

DISCOVERY OF THE DOUBLE HELIX

• By the 1950's, DNA was accepted as the genetic material, and the covalent arrangement in the nucleic acid polymer was well established. The three dimensional structure of DNA, however, was yet to be discovered. (Figure 15.4) Primary Structure of DNA
1. Nucleotides
2. Phosphodiester link
3. Polarity
4. Information content
FIGURE
• Researchers used X-ray diffraction of DNA to investigate its structure. They found:
1. DNA is a helix with a uniform width of 2 nm. This width suggested that it has two strands.
2. Purine and pyrimidine bases are stacked .34 nm apart.
3. The helix makes one full turn every 3.4 nm along its length.
4. There are ten layers of nucleotide pairs in each turn of the helix.
5. Watson and Crick built scale models of a double helix that would conform to the X-ray data and the known chemistry of DNA.
1. One of their unsuccessful attempts placed the sugar-phosphate chains inside the molecule.
2. Watson next put the sugar-phosphate chains on the outside which allowed the more hydrophobic nitrogenous bases to swivel to the interior away from the aqueous medium.
3. Their proposed structure is a ladder-like molecule twisted into a spiral, with sugar-phosphate backbones as uprights and pairs of nitrogenous bases as rungs.
4. The two sugar-phosphate backbones of the helix are antiparallel; that is, they run in opposite directions.
6. Watson and Crick finally solved the problem of DNA structure by proposing that there is a specific pairing between nitrogenous bases. After considering several arrangements, they concluded:
1. To be consistent with a 2 nm width, a purine on one strand must pair with a pyrimidine on the other.
2. Base structure dictates which pairs of bases can hydrogen bond. The base pairing rule is that adenine can only pair with thymine, and guanine with cytosine.

Purines	Pyrimidines	Possible Base Pairs	Number of Hydrogen Bonds
Adenine (A)	Thymine (T)	A-T	2
Guanine (G)	Cytosine (C)	G-C	3

7. The base-pairing rule is significant because:
   1. It explains Chargaff's rules.
   2. It suggests the general mechanisms for DNA replication. If bases form specific paris, the information on one strand complements that along the other.
   3. It dictates the combination of complementary base pairs, but places no restriction on the linear sequence of nucleotides along the length of a DNA strand. The sequence of bases can be highly variable which makes it suitable for coding genetic information.
   4. Though hydrogen bonds between paired bases are weak bonds, collectively they stabilize the DNA molecule. Van der Waals forces and hydrophobic interactions between stacked bases also help stabilize DNA

All the cells in the world contain DNA - be they animal, vegetal, or bacterial -- and they are all filled with salt water, in which the concentration of salt is similar to that of the worldwide ocean.  We cry and sweat what is essentially sea water.  DNA bathes in water, which in turn plays a crucial role in establishing the double helix's shape.  As DNA's four bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine) are insoluble in water, they tuck themselves into the center of the molecule where they associate in pairs to form the rungs of the ladder; then they twist up into a spiraled stack to avoid contact with the surrounding water molecules.  DNA's twisted ladder shape is a direct consequence of the cell's water environment.  DNA goes together with water, just like mythical serpents do.

Jeremy Narby - _The Cosmic Serpent: DNA And The Origins Of Knowledge_

cover art for releases:

• _Cold Blue Torch_ remix CD of Psychic TV (1996)
  • artwork by Genesis P. Orridge
• _Pregnant With The Senior Class_ by Angel Hair on Gravity (1997)
   

The Sumerian Connection
 

The Double Helix Crop Circle

On June 17, 1996  a spectacular crop circle was discovered in England. The formation looked strikingly similar to the blueprint for human DNA. The circle measured 648 feet long, with a double-helix type design, and appeared in a field of barley..

The Tzolk'in is the Sacred calendar of the Maya and is based on the cycles of the Pleiadies. The cycle of the Pleiadies uses 26,000 years, but is reflected in the calendar we are using by encompassing 260 days.  It uses the sacred numbers 13 and 20. The 13 represents the numbers and 20 represents the sun/glyphs. The Tzolk'in has four smaller cycles called seasons of 65 days each guarded by the four suns of Chicchan, Oc, Men and Ahau. There are also Portal days within the Tzolk'in that create a double helix pattern using 52 days and the mathematics of 28. This sacred calendar is still being used for divination by the traditional Maya all over the Yucatan, Guatemala, and Belize, and Honduras.  

• Text: DNA as Conductor by Matti Pitkänen
• Image: Tesla Coil, Copper Pyramid and Double Helix image from Keelynet
• Anomalog: DNA Trolleys
  

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