Genetics

 

 

From: Oxsan
Date: 25 Apr 2001
Time: 17:29:37

Oxsan's Three Minute Course In Human Genetics

A genome is a book. It has 23 Chapters called chromosomes. Each chapter contains several thousand stories called genes. Each gene is made up of paragraphs called exons. These exons are separated by frequent interruptions of commercials called introns. Each paragraph is made up of words called codons. Each word is written in letters called bases. There are approximately one billion words in the book. There are about 100 trillion cells in the human body, each cell containing two volumes of the book. There are little messengers in all of the cells which flow along the DNA and can switch genes on and off and can copy the codons off the genes and put these codons into a little machine in every cell called a ribosome and make an amino acid of it, which will then fold itself up with other amino acids and become a protein. A gene is nothing more or less than a recipe for an amino acid.

Now you know the secret of life.

Actually all of that came from Genomics by Matt Ridley. You should read it because it is really not quite as simple as that and he can explain it better than I can.

Love

dad,granpa,ami