DNA Semantics

The “DNA Semantics” is a book about an interpretation of DNA/RNA as visual structures with specific formal properties and relationships. Instead of existing alphabet representation U, C, A, G and T, all the
bases are expressed as five discrete values of the gray-scale: T=white, G= light gray, A= gray, C= dark gray and U= black. Arranged in 3x4 matrices DNA strands as linear structures consisting of alphabet letters are converted in 2D images with distinct visual properties. In this representation we could learn more about DNA/RNA, not only as biological(functional) structures but also as a specific language that can be expressed visually.

First edition. 2015

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Gregor Mobius is a theoretician of languages that are expressed visually. His early work was in the field of Graph Theory developing an algorithm for visual representation of all planar and regular graphs. As a Fulbright scholar he received master of Science in Visual Studies at MIT with the paper “Discrete Visual Structure - Elements of Visual Grammar” (1984). A few years later, based on his thesis paper, Mobius proposed a specific representation of DNA and RNA that converts linear alphabet DNA structure into a 2D image. This work was presented to the public at the exhibition Gene(sis) that traveled through some West Coast universities: Washington University(2002), University of California, Berkeley (2003) and University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (2004). It is now for the first time presented in a comprehensive way in the book “DNA Semantics”.