ABSTRACT
Biology presents many perplexing themes to one trained in the physical or mathematical sciences. It has very few general laws or universal rules. While evolutionary theory represents a general framework, the nature of evolutionary forces and the precise entities upon which these forces act are matters of debate. The genetic code, universal for terrestrial life, appears to be a historical accident in the sense that among several plausible alternative codes, only the present coding scheme has survived through evolution. Almost everything else in biology depends on the context; every rule has its exception.1
