WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE

    I have often wondered what our heredity is and how much of it has made us like we are. There is no doubt that both heredity and environment play a great part in helping us become the person we are today.  There have been so many advances in science that much interest has grown with new information about heredity.  I’m sure you have noticed the publicity that has arisen regarding ancestry and the popularity of searching about our family background and our heritage.  Take for example, what has been advertised on the internet, “Ancestry.com” and other similar sources to assist you in finding out about your family background through DNA testing.

    Well, before we get to that testing, it’s important to understand the concept of heredity which provides us the value of the DNA.   First of all, heredity is the biological process responsible for passing on physical traits from one generation to the next.  It’s the reason why offspring look like their parents.  It’s the likelihood that you might have blue eyes if they do.   This biological process was first used in the 1530s.  The noun heredity comes from the Latin word hereditatem, meaning “condition of being an heir”.

    DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, sometimes called the “molecule of life” is what makes you uniquely you!   It is the genetic code that determines all the characteristics of a living thing.  You and I got our DNA from our parents, which we call our “hereditary material” (information that is passed on to the next generation). You may be interested to know a genome, a gene and a chromosome are all structures of DNA.  A genome is an entire set of genes.

    Given all this above information, you can appreciate the value of DNA as it relates to various aspects of life such as medicine, forensics, and our curiosity regarding our heritage.  It seems that maybe wanting to know more about our family history can sometimes be very enlightening as well as comforting.  Yet, the point to be made is that the DNA we have is not easily modified.  So, in life we learn to adapt to the characteristics we inherit.