Гарри Поттер и методы рационального мышления. Часть 1 (1-30)

Note: Since the science in this story is usually all correct, I include a warning that in Ch. 22-25 Harry overlooks many possibilities, the most important of which is that there are lots of magical genes but they're all on one chromosome (which wouldn't happen naturally, but the chromosome might have been engineered). In this case, the inheritance pattern would be Mendelian, but the magical chromosome could still be degraded by chromosomal crossover with its nonmagical homologue. (Harry has read about Mendel and chromosomes in science history books, but he hasn't studied enough actual genetics to know about chromosomal crossover. Hey, he's only eleven.) However, although a modern science journal would find a lot more nits to pick, everything Harry presents as strong evidence is in fact strong evidence - the other possibilities are improbable.	* * *
Act 2:	Акт 2:
(The sun shone brilliantly into the Great Hall from the enchanted sky-ceiling above, illuminating the students as though they sat beneath the naked sky, gleaming from their plates and bowls, as, refreshed by a night's sleep, they inhaled breakfast in preparation for whatever plans they'd made for their Sunday.)	(С зачарованного потолка Большого Зала ярко сияло солнце, освещая учеников, будто они сидели под открытым небом. Лучи играли на тарелках и кубках. Бодрые с утра ученики завтракали, готовясь воплотить в жизнь планы на воскресенье.)
So.	Итак.
There was only one thing that made you a wizard.	Волшебник ты или нет - зависит только от одного фактора.
That wasn't surprising, when you thought about it.	Неудивительно, если подумать.
What DNA mostly did was tell ribosomes how to chain amino acids together into proteins.	Задача ДНК - объяснять рибосомам, как соединять аминокислоты в белки.
Conventional physics seemed quite capable of describing amino acids, and no matter how many amino acids you chained together, conventional physics said you would never, ever get magic out of it.	Аминокислоты вполне описываются традиционной физикой, и, как их ни соединяй, традиционная физика утверждает, что магия из них никак не появится.
And yet magic seemed to be hereditary, following DNA.	И всё-таки получается, что магия передаётся по наследству с помощью ДНК.
Then that probably wasn't because the DNA was chaining together nonmagical amino acids into magical proteins.	Сомнительно, что это происходит из-за способности этой ДНК соединять неволшебные аминокислоты в волшебные белки.
Rather the key DNA sequence did not, of itself, give you your magic at all.	Значит, скорее всего, ключевая последовательность в ДНК сама по себе не наделяет человека магическими способностями.
Magic came from somewhere else.	Магия приходит откуда-то извне.
(At the Ravenclaw table there was one boy who was staring off into space, as his right hand automatically spooned some unimportant food into his mouth from whatever was in front of him.	(Мальчик за столом Когтеврана смотрел в пространство. Его правая рука машинально зачерпывала что-то ложкой из тарелки.