Yet the applicability of Shannon information theory to molecular biology has, to some degree, obscured a key distinction concerning the type of information that DNA possesses. Although Shannon’s theory measures the amount of information in a sequence of symbols or characters (or chemicals functioning as such), it doesn’t distinguish a meaningful or functional sequence from useless gibberish. For example: “we hold these truths to be self-evident” “ntnyhiznslhtgeqkahgdsjnfplknejmsed” These two sequences are equally long and equally improbable if we imagine them being drawn at random. Thus,
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