 Crick has said that Gamow's suggestions helped him in his own thinking about the problem.As related by Crick, Gamow observed that the 43 = 64 possible permutations of the four DNA bases, taken three at a time, would be reduced to 20 distinct combinations if the order was irrelevant.. Gamow proposed that these 20 combinations might code for the twenty amino acids which, he suggested, might well be the sole constituents of all proteins.Gamow's contribution to solving the problem of genetic coding gave rise to important models of biological degeneracy.