Shakespeare had a go at it with "honorificabilitudinitatibus"—which, depending on whom you ask, either means "the state of
being loaded with honors" or is an anagram proclaiming that Francis Bacon, not the Bard, really wrote Shakespeare's plays.#2558•
acetylseryltyrosylserylisoleucylthreonylserylprolylseryl-glutaminylphenylalanylvalylphenylalanylleucylserylseryl-valyltryptophylalanylaspartylprolylisoleucylglutamyl-leucylleucylasparaginylvalylcysteinylthreonylserylseryl-leucylglycylasparaginylglutaminylphenylalanylglutami-nylthreonylglutaminylglutaminylalanylarginylthreo-nylthreonylglutaminylvalylglutaminylglutaminylpheny-lalanylserylglutaminylvalyltryptophyllysylprolylphenyla-lanylprolylglutaminylserylthreonylvalylarginylphenylala-nylprolylglycylaspartylvalyltyrosyllysylvalyltyrosylargin-yltyrosylasparaginylalanylvalylleucylaspartylprolylleucyli-soleucylthreonylalanylleucylleucylglycylthreonylphenyla-lanylaspartylthreonylarginylasparaginylarginylisoleucyli-soleucylglutamylvalylglutamylasparaginylglu-taminylglutaminylserylprolylthreonylthreonylalanylglutamylthreo-nylleucylaspartylalanylthreonylarginylarginylvalylaspar-tylaspartylalanylthreonylvalylalanylisoleucylarginylsery-lalanylasparaginylisoleucylasparaginylleucylvalylasparagi-nylglutamylleucylvalylarginylglycylthreonylglycylleucyl-tyrosylasparaginylglutaminylasparaginylthreonylphenyla-lanylglutamylserylmethionylserylglycylleucylvalyltrypto-phylthreonylserylalanylprolylalanylserine
That anaconda runs 1,185 letters.*
Now, since none of you probably did more than run your eyes across "acetyl… serine," go back and take a second look. You'll
notice something funny about the distribution of letters. The most common letter in English, e, appears 65 times; the uncommon letter y occurs 183 times. One letter, l, accounts for 22 percent of the word (255 instances). And the y and l don't appear randomly but often next to each other—166 pairs, every seventh letter or so. That's no coincidence. This long
word describes a protein, and proteins are built up from the sixth (and most versatile) element on the periodic table, carbon.#2547•
Oxygen,
as element eight, has eight total electrons. Two belong to the lowest energy tier, which fills first. That leaves six left
over in the outer level, so oxygen is always scouting for two additional electrons. Two electrons aren't so hard to find,
and aggressive oxygen can dictate its own terms and bully other atoms. But the same arithmetic shows that poor carbon, element
six, has four electrons left over after filling its first shell and therefore needs four more to make eight. That's harder
to do, and the upshot is that carbon has really low standards for forming bonds. It latches onto virtually anything.#2551•
But being in that situation gives silicon some of carbon's flexibility, too. And
because carbon's flexibility is directly linked to its capacity to form life, silicon's ability to mimic carbon has made it
the dream of generations of science fiction fans interested in alternative—that is, alien—modes of life, life that follows
different rules than earth-bound life.#2548•