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Cell World Storyboard
The DNA Dive
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Dear
Roger -
I don't know if you remember me or not, but I often
think of the great work you
have been doing in the Skydiving community since I jumped back in the 80's and
photographed formations near Lake Geneva.
Last year my wife got cancer, and I went back to
school to study biochemistry
which is quite a serious and difficult subject. The outcome of my studies has
been that I am working on a film called CellWorld, which will take people to
the complex reality inside the cells of the body. (see http://www.wdv.com).
It turns out that film is the only way to communicate the complexity of what
is happening down there.
The reason I am writing you, is that as part of
this project I will be requiring
footage of a special skydive calledl, "Double Helix".
Now I don't need this right away, perhaps not for
a year or so, but I wanted to
mention it to you now, because it is really a neat dive, and it will take some
serious work to get right.
pause.
It turns out that every one of our body cells packs
a stretch
of DNA that tells the cell what to do.
Now DNA is shaped like a ladder that has been twisted.
The rungs are symbolized by people, docking hands.
The hands represent hydrogen bonds.
The DNA message inside each cell is written in an
alphabet of just four letters.
C, T, A, and G.
The rules are:
C Always Docks to G
A Always Docks to T
So if you had a string of people in four colors of jumpsuits say:
C - T - A - G
across the formation on the other side of the "helix" would be:
G - A - T - C
when they dock they make a spiral formation.
In the body, these docks have a propeller like shape, with a slight tilt, you can see this on my web site.
Now it may be that a "painter" climbs
the DNA ladder, like one jumper who climbed the back of the formation, "Starship
Enterprise" as you may recall from yesteryear.
Now this is a 3-D dive and there are more details, but I wanted to bring this
to your attention because you have always been such a creative flyer.
Regards,
- Van