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People like this can't be talked with, since they missed their lessons about what DNA even is.
Yeah this is a hard thing to broach on people because the whole DNA, how it is transcribed into mRNA, how that's dealt with inside the ribosomes with tRNA, and so forth. That's a good month worth of ninth grade science. That's a month's worth of Monday through Friday, one hour each day, for one month.
And even then, there's a bit of background that works into all of that. Like the various organelles and what their purpose is inside the cells. The various parts of the human immune system and how they work together to fight infections. So there's a lot of people who have a very flawed understanding of ninth grade science and you cannot just simply overcome that lack of knowledge in a single conversation. It's not a single conversation kind of knowledge, it's something that a good part of one's secondary education is devoted to and if you missed it then, it's really hard to go back and regain it.
The wild ramblings that sprung from this pandemic really shows that the education system has failed a lot of people. The why it has failed so spectacularly is a much, much bigger conversation. But all of this craziness that has been created in the wake of the pandemic is a complete failure of very basic science. And I think it's a sobering moment for all of us to soak in.
If you could trust they took you at your word you could give a decent explanation of RNA transcription in a few minutes with something like:
"DNA has two copies of all the instructions for making the proteins a cell needs, but it's locked inside the nucleus at the center. Thankfully there's something that makes a new copy, which is sent out of the nucleus to tell other parts what to do. It's like making a copy of a recipe in a cookbook and mailing it to someone so they know how to make it."
You don't need a month of ninth grade science to grok that, you just need to be open to learning new information.
For the OOP, all they need to know to avoid the thought presented is two things: 1) you need to make proteins continually and 2) DNA serves as a template for making proteins. That's all they literally need to know to realize being without DNA is deadly.
Randal Munroe: "Losing your DNA would most likely result in abdominal pain, dizziness, rapid immune system collapse, and death within days or hours from either rapid systemic infection or systemwide organ failure"
Thanks for posting the reference, I had it in mind but didn't act
It's a good month of science teaching for ninth graders to get it, for these people it's probably far longer