The original post: /r/askscience by /u/Xtrouble_yt on 2024-12-17 20:40:19.

By genetic code I of course mean the set of rules for the language of genes, not just how genes are encoded in general. That is to say, somewhere it is somehow encoded that codons are three bases wide and that for example UGG is the code for Tryptophan… But the fact that the rules for this language are encoded in the language itself is puzzling to me as to how it can work? Not only that but from what I understand we’ve been successful at changing this code in the lab to add new amino acids to the table!! So we must not only know that it’s stored in there somewhere but be able to locate it, like, we must know the specific genes that code for the genetic code, no? Which makes me also wonder, do we know in which chromosome that is stored in humans? or perhaps it’s in all of them? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but that’s not my main question, I’m more just wondering how the rules for the language are able to be written in the language itself. Thanks!