|
|
| Line 8: |
Line 8: |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| − | ==DNA fingerprinting==
| |
| | | | |
| − | DNA can help police track down criminals if an attacker leaves something like hair or blood at a crime scene. Everybody’s DNA is unique unless they are identical twins, and the genetic ‘fingerprint’ of this material can be enough to confirm if a suspect was at the scene.
| |
| − | Genetic fingerprinting can also show if somebody is closely related to somebody else. Archaeologists used samples from living relatives to identify whether bodies found buried in a forest in [[Russia]] were the remains of the [[Tsar]] and his family, killed during the 1919 [[Russian revolution]].
| |
| − |
| |
| − | As well as showing how different we all are, DNA shows how much we are all the same. Only one small part of one chromosome distinguishes a boy from a girl. Genes give us different colored eyes, hair and skin, but 99.5% of any human's DNA is in the same order as everybody else’s.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | Every living thing on earth has DNA that uses the same basic chemicals as human DNA, but because their chemicals are in a different order, the DNA of a worm or a tree encodes for different proteins, and those proteins make different cells. Evolutionists believe that all these cells developed from the first single-cell creatures formed three thousand million years ago, evolving gradually into new species to adapt to their environment. Creationists believe that God created living things as distinct [[baraminology|"kinds"]], and point to [[information]] theory to show that the information on the DNA could not have arisen by chance.
| |
| | | | |
| | ==External links== | | ==External links== |
Revision as of 05:12, May 11, 2008
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is an organic chemical compound made up of molecules shaped like a double helix, a continuously twisted ladder. The individual monomeric building blocks of DNA (and other nucleic acids) are nucleotides, which themselves consist of three principle moieties: A nitrogenous base, a sugar, and a phosphate group.
DNA carries the genetic coding for the proteins that form the bodies of living organisms. All organisms contain DNA, and the DNA of a sexually reproducing organism is a mix of its parents' DNA.
External links
References
