Happy Monday, everyone. I'm running a little late this morning. The Great Swamp aka Land of Lily Pad, has been without internet since I got up this morning. Don't you hate when that It happen? You're whole morning routine gets messed up, but it does point out just how dependent we've all become on our connectivity to the world-wide "spider" web.
But I'm back online and it's time to get to work.
Over the weekend, I came across an article on DNA, the acronym for deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA. Over the past couple of decades, DNA has become widely used for tracking ancestry, solving crimes, and evaluating our odds of getting many diseases. All this stuff is public knowledge and accepted. The article I read, and want to share with you, has some interesting and fun facts about DNA that you might not know.
1. Even though it codes for all the information that makes up an organism, DNA is built using only four building blocks, the nucleotides adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine.
2. Every human being shares 99% of their DNA with every other human. That means that humans are more interconnected than they like to think!
3. If you put all the DNA molecules in your body end to end, the DNA would reach from the Earth to the Sun and back over 600 times (100 trillion times six feet divided by 92 million miles).
4. A parent and child share 99.5% of the same DNA.
5. Humans have 98% of your DNA in common with a chimpanzee.
6. If you could type 60 words per minute, eight hours a day, it would take approximately 50 years to type the human genome.
7. DNA is a fragile molecule. About a thousand times a day, something happens to it to cause errors. This could include errors during transcription, damage from ultraviolet light, or any of a host of other activities. There are many repair mechanisms, but some damage isn't repaired. This means you carry mutations! Some of the mutations cause no harm, a few are helpful, while others can cause diseases, such as cancer. A new technology called CRISPR could allow us to edit genomes, which might lead us to the cure of such mutations as cancer, Alzheimer's and, theoretically, any disease with a genetic component.
8. Scientists at Cambridge University believe humans have DNA in common with the mud worm and that it is the closest invertebrate genetic relative to us. In other words, you have more in common, genetically speaking, with a mud worm than you do with a spider or octopus or cockroach.
9. Humans and cabbage share about 40-50% common DNA.
10. Friedrich Miescher discovered DNA in 1869, although scientists did not understand DNA was the genetic material in cells until 1943. Prior to that time, it was widely believed that proteins stored genetic information.
That's some pretty fascinating stuff! I hope you enjoyed this abbreviated blog this morning. I'll be back here tomorrow for a look at fairy tales. This is in celebration of National Tell A Fairy Tale Day. Won't you please join me?
Until we meet again, I wish you
PEACE.
But I'm back online and it's time to get to work.
Over the weekend, I came across an article on DNA, the acronym for deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA. Over the past couple of decades, DNA has become widely used for tracking ancestry, solving crimes, and evaluating our odds of getting many diseases. All this stuff is public knowledge and accepted. The article I read, and want to share with you, has some interesting and fun facts about DNA that you might not know.
1. Even though it codes for all the information that makes up an organism, DNA is built using only four building blocks, the nucleotides adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine.
2. Every human being shares 99% of their DNA with every other human. That means that humans are more interconnected than they like to think!
3. If you put all the DNA molecules in your body end to end, the DNA would reach from the Earth to the Sun and back over 600 times (100 trillion times six feet divided by 92 million miles).
4. A parent and child share 99.5% of the same DNA.
5. Humans have 98% of your DNA in common with a chimpanzee.
6. If you could type 60 words per minute, eight hours a day, it would take approximately 50 years to type the human genome.
7. DNA is a fragile molecule. About a thousand times a day, something happens to it to cause errors. This could include errors during transcription, damage from ultraviolet light, or any of a host of other activities. There are many repair mechanisms, but some damage isn't repaired. This means you carry mutations! Some of the mutations cause no harm, a few are helpful, while others can cause diseases, such as cancer. A new technology called CRISPR could allow us to edit genomes, which might lead us to the cure of such mutations as cancer, Alzheimer's and, theoretically, any disease with a genetic component.
8. Scientists at Cambridge University believe humans have DNA in common with the mud worm and that it is the closest invertebrate genetic relative to us. In other words, you have more in common, genetically speaking, with a mud worm than you do with a spider or octopus or cockroach.
9. Humans and cabbage share about 40-50% common DNA.
10. Friedrich Miescher discovered DNA in 1869, although scientists did not understand DNA was the genetic material in cells until 1943. Prior to that time, it was widely believed that proteins stored genetic information.
That's some pretty fascinating stuff! I hope you enjoyed this abbreviated blog this morning. I'll be back here tomorrow for a look at fairy tales. This is in celebration of National Tell A Fairy Tale Day. Won't you please join me?
Until we meet again, I wish you
PEACE.
Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "10 Interesting DNA Facts." ThoughtCo, Nov. 5, 2018, thoughtco.com/interesting-dna-facts-608188.
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