There were several monitors, all running so fast it was hard to see what they were showing. Wu pushed a button and slowed one image. Here you see the actual structure of a small fragment of dinosaur DNA, Wu said. Notice the sequence is made up of four basic compounds-adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. This amount of DNA probably contains instructions to make a single protein-say, a hormone or an enzyme. The full DNA molecule contains three billion of these bases. If we looked at a screen like this once a second, for eight hours a day, it'd still take more than two years to look at the entire DNA strand. It's that big.
by Michael Crichton
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In the passage, Wu demonstrates the complexity of dinosaur DNA by slowing down one of the rapid displays on the monitors. He explains that this small fragment consists of four key components: adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine, which are the building blocks of DNA. With this information, Wu highlights that even a tiny piece of DNA holds the instructions to produce a specific protein, illustrating the intricacy of genetic material.

Wu further emphasizes the vast scale of DNA by stating that the entire DNA molecule comprises approximately three billion of these fundamental bases. He notes that if someone were to examine the sequence at a rate of once per second for eight hours a day, it would take over two years to review the complete DNA strand. This underscores the enormity and complexity of genetic information within living organisms.

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