So how does this DNA store information? DNA has long chemical polymers or strands made up of chains of molecules. There are two strands twisted into a double helix. The strands are linked by four types of base molecules or bases.

These are four bases: guanine, cytosine, thymine and adenine. The bases can only fit or link or pair together as follows guanine with cytosine, and thymine with adenine.

The difference between one DNA molecule and another depend on the pattern or sequence of these base pairings along the length of the polymer double helix. This sequence of base pairs represents the genetic code, which controls the development of the organism.

A single strand of DNA can be over 10,000 base units long. In a typical mammalian cell, there are 2.5 billion base pairs.  Genes are units on the DNA molecule. Therefore, there are almost an unlimited number of genes in plants and animals.

Genes with completely new capabilities or characteristic can only be created only when mistakes occur in the DNA replication or copying process.

A mistake in the DNA replication is called a mutation. The mutation is usually small a very small error in the genetic code and the rate of mutation in normal organisms is extremely low.

The probability of any particular base position in a DNA chain being miscopied on any one copying occasion is approximately one in a 1,000,000,000 (1 billion), but they do happen but it takes a considerably length of time for a mutation to occur.

The lifetime of DNA messages of genetic code is therefore measured in millions of years.

This simple modular structure is partly the key to how nature has created complex, powerful, elegant, awe-inspiring, incredibly capable organisms and species have evolved, thrived, and survived for millions of years

Astonishingly, genes with completely new capabilities or characteristics can only be created only when mistakes occur in the DNA replication or copying process.

Mutation occurs when a piece of the DNA is faulty. Mutation is known as an insurance policy to maintain diversity within the population. Typically, mutation occurs with a small frequency of occurrence - often less than one in a million.  Mutations are mostly bad causing inherited diseases, but some are good, and lead to new worthwhile traits or features. 

Mutations produce sudden and distinct differences between individuals. The rate of mutation dictates the speed of transition of the organisms. As new genes are introduced, this increases the diversity of the population members, unlike the process of recombination.

Slow, gradual, cumulative, small steps of genetic change, involving mutations over many generations, explains nature’s way of deriving complex organisms that survive.  

The cumulative change over the generations is not random. Nature does not start fresh again. The genes that go forward to the next generation are selected, based on the traits that are derived from the genes. This selection of these traits, is determined by the current environment, not the future environment. The selection is made through competition for food, mates, and shelter, as well as disease, and predation.

Cumulative selection can manufacture complexity and great designs, but it cannot work unless there is some machinery of replication – a replicator engine. The replicator is ultimate engine of life. It is nature’s only strategy.

The mutation rate dictates the transformation rate. It introduces new genes.

The two simple  properties of self replication – the basic ingredient of cumulative selection or life are

1)     the power over their own future – to carry forward the traits from the genes passed on – taking the best of today forward.

2)     mistakes are made, although DNA copying incorporates proof reading drills or controls

Very occasionally, a mutation or new gene will give an organism a survival advantage over its relatives in the environment. This is specially so when the environment changes. It allows the organism to fit the environment better.

This is the ‘survival of the fittest’ or natural selection. This mutation and selection process drives evolution. A good example is a mutation in bacteria that makes it resistant to antibiotics, so the mutant gene lives on, in the offspring, creating a resistant or surviving strain of bacteria.

There are two ways we can learn from nature here

• Spot and Learn from Mistakes - Create a Blame free culture

• Encourage controlled experimentation - mistakes - if it does not work look for alternative uses.

Mistakes in business are 85% down to the system or process and about 15% down the people. There should be no stigma to finding a mistake. Correct the system, don't blame the people. Learn and move on.

Develop the tactic of asking ...What went well? What went not so well?...of everything, then eliminate the not so wells.

It is important to note, that the mutation rate can be increased in human cells by the exposure to radiation and certain chemicals...mutation pressure.

In business we have the possibility of creating a "mutation pressure" in a nice and controlled way. Create risk free experiments, build prototypes, try new ways of work, stimulate ideas and suggestions.

Note, many new inventions have come from applying existing knowledge to different areas.

Create a way of randomly generating small, harmless accidents or ideas that sometimes produce breakthroughs in business or give you the mutant gene that will make you immune to a disease or competition.