I kept wondering what Alex's real reason was for today's visit as my wife served him his second cup of coffee.

He complimented her as usual. "I sure like your European coffee, it's strong maybe, but it's so smooth." Then he gingerly took a small sip before continuing.

"My niece Jennifer stopped by yesterday on her way back to college. We had a good visit but when I asked her what she was majoring in she gave me some wishy-washy answers. She called it Molecular Biology, but she wouldn't explain much more. It was too difficult to explain she said, probably meaning that I was too dumb to understand. So I figure you can give me some hints for the next time Jenny comes by."

"OK," I agreed, "I will try. What she is studying is all those different chemicals that your body is made of, and how they work together. Now, let's use the correct words and instead of just chemicals that speed more specific and say molecules. I'll start with the most important one, called DNA. The DNA is a real big molecule, shaped somewhat like a twisted ladder.

The rungs of the ladder are like pieces of an alphabet you could say. taking a bunch of them together makes a word and the whole bunch of words together make a sentence. And at any a the whole bunch of them taken together make an instruction sheet for the machinery of the body as to what to do and how to do it. In other words this is what we call a gene. And there are many of them, all strong together neatly inside that ladder like pearls of a necklace.

The body then takes the information that the gene has given it to manufacture a molecule. That's why it is called molecular biology and Jennifer studies how this all works. And I do agree with her, it is really complicated and this is the best I can do to explain molecular biology to you. But now you know at least a little bit about what she is doing.

Now let me give you an example of the type of molecules that the body makes according to the genes instruction sheet. For instance, your body makes molecules that can sense what the body needs. Like when your body needs more liquid. Other chemicals then make you feel thirsty and you will do what the molecule has told you, supply more liquid. They are molecules that make you sleepy, there are molecules that make you hungry, and the list goes on and on. .

"Hold it right here, Buddy," he stopped me. "If that DNA molecule can do all that, doesn't that mean that we are not as much in charge as we think we are?"

"Good point, Alex," I answered. "In fact, over 360 years ago a British poet by the name of Samuel Butler said that the hen is just the egg's means to replicate itself. You realize what that means regarding us. It says that a person is just the DNA's instrument to replicate itself.

But here comes the sneaky part. Your genes also make chemicals that tell your brain to feel good when you obey those signals from your genes.

We might as well admit that it is the DNA making us grow up to sexual maturity. Then it tells us that it wants to be replicated. And to make sure that we carry out it's orders it will make the job so enjoyable that very few of us can deny the urge.

Once we have done our job that the DNA had outlined for us it loses interest in us. We are getting old and decrepit.

This starts early in life with us guys "standing at the corner, watching all the girls go by", as the old song goes. And the girls putting themselves on display, walking with a wiggle, wearing lipstick and perfume to attract us. This dance of the sexes has been going on for many thousands of years and there's only one reason for it, replication, as dictated by our DNA molecule.

Consider, here we stand, the crowning result of millions of years of evolution, the very top of the food chain, the builder of skyscrapers and rocket ships, the designer of operas and gothic cathedrals, the conqueror of diseases, the mind that probes the vastness of the cosmos and the infinitesimal world of basic particles.

And yet, who are we in reality?

Are we the great conqueror or are we the puppet obeying a big molecule? .