 Molecular biologists spent the remainder of the 1950s and 1960s determining how the double-helical structure of DNA helped to elucidate the mechanisms of genetic replication and function. This research was guided by the notion that the gene was an informational molecule (Kay 2000). The nucleic acid bases were “letters” which, in sets of three, made up “words” that “coded” for one amino acid. Each chromosome was a “chapter” in an organism’s entire genome—the “book of life”. These weren’t just catchy phrases for newspaper headlines. The technical language of molecular biology employed the information metaphor. DNA was “transcribed” into RNA, which was then “translated” into proteins—the central dogma of molecular biology (entry:  biological information).