Where does end collide?

In Aristotle's philosophy an end, or telos, is that for the sake of which something is done, the final cause or goal toward which an action or a nature aims. In the Nicomachean ethics ends form a hierarchy in which lesser ends serve higher ones, terminating in a highest good, and this is the root of the familiar contrast between ends and means. The referent is a purpose or goal, and it shares only the word with a strand terminus or a round of bowls.[1]

Unit

A goal or final cause of an action

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Not measured; identified by the purpose an action or a thing is directed toward

In molecular biology the two ends of a DNA or RNA strand are chemically distinct: the 5' end carries a phosphate group on the fifth carbon of its terminal sugar, while the 3' end carries a hydroxyl on the third, which gives the strand a direction. Alberts and colleagues' Molecular biology of the cell explains how this 5'-to-3' polarity dictates the way polymerases read a template and add new nucleotides. The referent is a chemical terminus and the directionality it confers, not a purpose or a round of a lawn game.[2]

Unit

The 5' and 3' chemical termini of a nucleic-acid strand

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Identified by the 5'-phosphate and 3'-hydroxyl chemistry of the sugar-phosphate backbone