325

Ideally, the project leader or first author should check the database at regular intervals to

ensure that the data is still up-to-date. It also makes sense to link the databases to ongoing

projects and to keep developing them so that they remain up to date. Useful is also infor­

mation about the last update (when and ideally also specifically what was done) of the

website (include when programming), so that the user has an overview.

20.7

How to Better Understand Signal Cascades and Measure

the Encoded Information

Question 7.1

Well, I need three bits to do that, because LLL or 111 is the representation of the number

seven in dual numbers.

Question 7.2

The representation starts with the 512 bit (2 to the ninth power), then there are 488 left,

which fits the 256 (2 to the eighth power), then there are 232 left, with that I can fill the 2

to the seventh power (128 bit), then there are 104 left, which corresponds to the 2 to the

sixth power (64), then there are 40 left, which fits the 32 (2 to the fifth power), then there

are 8 left (2 to the third power), all remaining digits are zeros:

1,111,101,000.

Question 7.3

An example is https://www.binaryhexconverter.com/decimal-­to-­binary-­converter, which

then gives as answer for the decimal number 1000 (one thousand): 0000001111101000.

Question 7.4

A letter has on average about 4.7 bits, i.e. one needs (depending on the coding scheme

more bits) at least 5 bits to be able to represent a total of 32 different characters (26 letters,

then there are ö, ä, ü, ß, comma and dot). The word “word” needs four times as much, i.e.

at least 20 bits, to be encoded.

Question 7.5

What is important is the secure encoding of information with the aid of solidly stored bits.

The bits thus measure the indispensably necessary amount of information for the encod­

ing. For example, each nucleotide has 2 bits because there are four nucleotides. One can

also see how in RNA molecules this information content per bit is increased when biologi­

cally necessary, especially by nucleotide modifications, especially methylations (e.g.

pseudouridine in tRNA) and other modifications. Here, this bit increase is important to

increase the safety of protein synthesis, i.e. to increase the reading accuracy of the tRNA.

20.7  How to Better Understand Signal Cascades and Measure the Encoded Information