Read the following passage adapted from an essay on the history of molecular biology:
"For decades, the central dogma of molecular biology reigned as an unassailable autocracy, decreeing that genetic information flowed strictly from DNA to RNA to protein, with the latter executing all catalytic duties. RNA was relegated to the humble role of messenger, a transient courier carrying instructions from the genomic vault to the cellular machinery. When researchers in the early 1980s observed RNA molecules splicing themselves in the complete absence of protein helpers, they did not immediately celebrate a breakthrough. Instead, they suspected contamination, assuming their assays were flawed. The dogma was so deeply entrenched that the concept of a catalytic RNA—a 'ribozyme'—was treated as a chemical heresy. The initial resistance to this discovery illustrates not just scientific skepticism, but the profound grip of established paradigms on the scientific imagination."
In the context of the first sentence, the author's use of the phrase "unassailable autocracy" functions rhetorically to achieve which of the following effects?
- ASuggest that mid-twentieth-century molecular biologists worked under politically oppressive government systems.
- BDetail the specific biochemical steps RNA uses to carry messages from the genomic vault.
- Emphasize the rigid, unquestioned authority that the central dogma held over molecular biology.Answer
- DArgue that the flow of genetic information from DNA to RNA is completely chaotic and unpredictable.