Eden argued that much the same problem applied to DNA—that insofar as specific arrangements of bases in DNA function like digital code, random changes to these arrangements would likely efface their function, while attempts to generate completely new sections of genetic text by random means were likely doomed to failure.5 The explanation for this inevitable diminution in function is found in a branch of mathematics called combinatorics. Combinatorics studies the number of ways a group of things can be combined or arranged. At one level, the subject is fairly intuitive. If a thief slips round
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