Prev. Article Next Article Table of Contents

Article

Genetic Code Wordsearch

Your current credentials do not allow retrieval of the full text.

Purchase the full-text

PDF/HTML,
figures/images,
references and tables,
(where available)

Terry L. Helser

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, SUNY College at Oneonta, Oneonta, NY 13820-4015

J. Chem. Educ., 2003, 80 (4), p 417

DOI: 10.1021/ed080p417

Publication Date (Web): April 1, 2003

Section:

History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

This puzzle embeds 30 terms and acronyms that describe the nucleotide sequences used to make proteins in all terrestrial organisms. The terms and acronyms are arranged in a 14 x 14 letter matrix. A descriptive narrative below the matrix describes important features of the process. The terms a student needs to find are given in the narrative as clues with underlined spaces to be filled with letters. When all the terms are found, the 14 unused letters in the matrix complete a sentence that describes a major principle of the chemistry of life.