The Cell’s Astonishing Precision — Error-Correction, Mutation & the Machinery That Defends the Genome
The cell copies its DNA to one error in ten billion bases through a three-layer correction cascade — yet most mutations that slip through are harmful and beneficial ones are vanishingly rare. A look at the energy-versus-accuracy trade-off and density-associated mutation-rate plasticity (DAMP), and why a higher mutation rate under stress may be simple energy conservation rather than a clever bid to evolve.