Chapter 1: The Long Wait

The precision and versatility of Nature is remarkable. Cell division is at the heart of all organic matter. It allows for replication in a highly faithful manner. This stability depends on the impressive fidelity of duplication of the central information-carrying molecule, the DNA. The error in insertion of a proper matching nucleotide in the double-stranded molecule, remarkably, is only one in a million. And still there are errors. These may be detrimental to the function of cells and potentially cause disease in multicellular organisms, but accidentally they may sometimes also be of value. The progress of evolution depends on such mistakes…