very confused as to what DNA is, and have no technical expertise to understand detailed articles! Is DNA something you can look at under a microscope or what?
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DNA is a molecule made up by smaller molecules. It’s in a double helix shape, imagine like a spiral staircase 🧬. DNA is wrapped up into even bigger molecules called chromosomes, which are then stored in the nucleus of every cell in your body.
DNA is basically the blue print for life. It acts like a code made up by 4 letters: ATGC. They are massive strings, billions of letters. Fun fact, if you string all the DNA from all chromosomes from just one cell into one continuous string, you’d get a string 2 meters long. So there’s a lot of instructions. You share a lot of DNA with other people and other kinds of life. But the stuff that makes you unique, your appearance and size and stuff, is a bit of code that’s only found in your DNA.
When they check bones for DNA, they cut it open and get to the marrow. Here there’s some remnants of cells with fragmented DNA still intact. They use computers to puzzle it back together, and with a little luck, you get the unique bits of code that you can use to identify ethnicity, sex and sometimes even a specific person. But DNA is pretty much broken down after 10000 years so you can’t bring back cave people or something like that 😉
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