Chapter 4 Chapter two

In a piano classroom at the Central Conservatory of Music, more than 20 pianos are lined up diagonally in transparent soundproof rooms.Professor Zhuo Qingyu paced among the students with his hands behind his back, talking with a smile.In the soundproofed building, her low-pitched voice was remarkably clear. "Today, I want to play a very special piano piece. It is special because the composer is extremely unusual, not Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, Dvorak, nor Bizet, Strauss , Delius, Schubert. The author of this piano music is the supreme God in our hearts!" She paused for a moment, smiling at the stunned expressions of the students.

"No, no, it's not Yahweh that Jews and Christians believe in, it's not Allah worshiped by Muslims, it's not Sakyamuni who helps all living beings and achieves supreme enlightenment, and it's not the beginning of 3,200 kalpas in Chinese mythology. The Jade Emperor, the Jade Emperor who proved his golden body - the Jade Emperor is just a mortal monarch who moved his throne to the Lingxiao Temple. The Han people lacked illusions in childhood, which can be seen from the Jade Emperor's vulgarity. This is a digression, we will return to Let’s get to the point. The God I’m talking about has no openings, no eyes, no ears, no skin, no hair, and a chaotic body. Who is it? It’s the universe that encompasses all directions and extends to eight poles! It’s nature!”

She asked an Australian student to stand up: "Bill, do you know DNA?" The child said affirmatively: "Of course I know! This is the content of the middle school biology class. Its full name is deoxyribonucleic acid, which contains the genetic code of all life and reproduction." The female professor said: "Yes. It is the most proud work of nature. Do you know its transmission process? You answer, Liu Jing." The Chinese girl with shofar braids made a grimace: "Mr. Zhuo, I've given up this knowledge a long time ago. I only remember that there are four kinds of nucleotides in DNA: guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine. , respectively referred to as A, G, T, and C. They form a double helix chain in pairs. Every three bases in the long chain form a triplet code, which determines the composition of an amino acid, and then consists of 20 Amino acids are arranged and combined to form different proteins, for example, AAA is lysine, GCG is glycine ... I can't remember anything else."

Professor Zhuo praised: "Not bad, it's already very good. After entering the gate of the Conservatory of Music, you can still remember so many awkward biological names, which is enough to prove that you were a good student in middle school." Liu Jing climbed up the ladder and said solemnly: "Teacher, even I myself don't know that I still have this little talent." More than 20 students burst into laughter. Professor Zhuo smiled and pressed his hands to calm everyone down: "Let's get back to business. As early as the end of the 20th century, scientists discovered that there is a mysterious correspondence between the ever-changing base sequences in DNA and music: the total number of bases is 4, and the octave is exactly twice that; gene duplication produces evolution , just like the similar repetition of the melody to form a movement. Scientists only perform a simple code exchange, such as replacing G with 2 in the score, C with 3, T with 5... the gene sequence will become a song Beautiful and beautiful music. This is the real sound of nature, the sound of nature!"

Her words opened up a mysterious and novel world among the students, who all opened their mouths slightly and listened fascinated. "For a long time, people have been puzzled by the magic of music. A good piece of music can transcend nations, borders, history, and resonate with people of different cultural structures. Why? Music can even transcend human beings— Animals and plants also like music. Music can make cows produce more milk and tomato production. Botanists have done an interesting experiment. They put two tape recorders in the zucchini greenhouse, one playing music and the other playing noise. , the vines of zucchini entangle the former but escape the latter. Why? There is only one explanation, that is, for all living organisms, there must be a specific material structure that exists universally that can resonate with the music. This specific structure of coexistence is the gene structure. So it should come as no surprise that all genetic structures can be translated into music.”

The tricky Chinese girl stood up and said with a smile: "Professor Zhuo, I want to ask a dead-end question. It is precisely because of the ever-changing genes that a wide variety of biological kingdoms are formed. Then, how can a piece of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" resonate with both human genes and cow genes? ?” She winked mischievously at her classmates, turned her head and waited for the teacher's answer solemnly.Professor Zhuo smiled and said: "Naughty ghost, do you think you can stop me? Let me tell you, I am the wife of a biologist. The so-called close ink is black. I have already plagiarized a lot of biological knowledge. You know, all living things can be traced back to cells. The levels are extremely similar, and this similarity even exists between animals and plants. The most important red blood cells in animals and the most important chlorophyll structure in plants are almost identical; viral genes and human genes have more than 60% in common, and human The genetic similarity rate with gorillas is over 99.98%. Therefore, there is an inherent reason why music can conquer all life.”

Liu Jing raised her head and thought for a while, then continued to ask: "I would like to seek a counter-evidence from reverse thinking. If the gene sequence is the embodiment of music, then, for the existing historical famous songs, can we find a gene sequence corresponding to it?" Professor Zhuo smiled and said: "Of course it is not a simple one-to-one correspondence. Even if the same tone sequence is processed with different beats, strengths, lengths, etc., different styles of music can be obtained. However, biomusicology Scientists have indeed found such an example. For example, Chopin's "Funeral March" is almost identical to the gene sequence of insulin. Would you like to hear me play the gene music of insulin? You can compare it with the funeral march. "

The graduates have been immersed in the mysterious and solemn atmosphere, as if they heard the bell ringing by God when he created the world.They said impatiently: "Mr. Zhuo, please play for us. Liu Jing, please sit down and shut your sparrow mouth!" Liu Jing had no choice but to sit down obediently.Zhuo Qingyu sat next to the piano, and after a little brewing of emotions, she played it. The sad and touching melody penetrated into everyone's cells.When the music ended, almost everyone's pupils were filled with water.An Indian student stood up and said solemnly: "Teacher, I think my following words can represent the whole class: Your class made us fall in love with music, thank you."