188 AMPHISBAENA 



o: 



Now I can see that you are a modem young scientist. The use of 

 these false singulars, a spectra, a media, a bacteria, a phenomena 

 or even a phenomenum, etc., is this not the summa cum laude of 

 the new generation? 



y: 

 I have never found Latin useful in my work. If you, too, had 

 studied more mathematics and physics, instead of wasting your 

 time, you would have accomplished more. 



o: 



This may very well be so. I have felt for some time that your 

 Ph. D. should be spelled pH D. 



y: 



In any event, this is how it works. There is no doubt at all, the 

 direction is: DNA to RNA to protein; but never backwards. The 

 genetic signals emanating from the DNA go first to a special kind 

 of RNA which turns over very rapidly, never amounts to more 

 than a few per cent of the total RNA of the cell, and mimics, 

 in its composition, that of the DNA. Since it carries the message 

 contained in the DNA, we call it the messenger RNA. 



o: 



This small and short-lived Corps of Commissionnaires, has 

 anyone seen it? 



y: 



What do you mean by "seen it"? There is plenty of indirect 

 evidence that such an RNA is formed. 



o: 



No, I mean the message, has anyone shown that it exists? Is it 

 not possible that the entire imposing terminological scaffold is 

 nothing but a suitcase for the emperor's new clothes? Is it not 



