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ZacQuicksilver t1_izpapcf wrote

Reply to comment by Galaxy-Hitchhiker42 in How did viral DNA become part of the human genome? by emelrad12

Here's a 200-page book, copy it by hand.

You may make a mistake.

That's DNA.

A virus's DNA is about 300 000 base pairs - which is about equivalent to a 200-page book. Granted, DNA has 4 characters while a book is written in closer to 64 - so maybe it's only a 65 page book; but you still have to copy it. Mistakes are going to happen.

Life generally takes two solutions to this: make a lot of copies as fast as you can and hope most of the books are still good; or take your time to make sure there are as few mistakes as possible.

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