DNA Facts – What is DNA?
DNA has often been referred to as the building blocks of life. In the world of science DNA is referred to as a nucleic acid that contains within it the genetic code that makes up the blueprint of the biological development of all plant, animal and some virus life forms. To me and you, DNA is our unique marker that can uniquely identify us. No two people will ever have the same DNA – except in the rare cases of exact twins (and even they are not guaranteed to have the same DNA).
Every person's DNA is inherited from both parents. We have a total of 46 chromosomes in our DNA; we inherit half of our chromosomes from each of our biological parents. Exactly 23 chromosomes come from both our father and our mother. Most of our inherited traits come from our DNA, and as such many times it is called the building blocks of our heredity. For us humans, such traits can include our hair color, eye color, chances of us going bald and in some cases our susceptibility to certain diseases that are passed genetically. As we learn more about DNA and the secrets it holds scientists are learning just exactly how it can affect our body composition (fat or skinny, tall or short), personality (happy-go-lucky, or grumpy) and traits (nervous habits, chewing of the fingernails). Some scientists believe that even items such as our IQ and ability to interact with others may have its roots in our DNA.
For those of you who are fans of such shows as CSI and Law & Order you may already be familiar with DNA. The use of DNA evidence in crime forensics is second only to medical research. By using collected samples of hairs, bodily fluids or even old, dried blood that is found at crime scenes DNA can be extracted from such samples and then matched up against possible suspects to either eliminate them or put them at the scene of the crime. One of the best things about DNA is that even samples that are several years old can still yield useful DNA for analysis. All too common nowadays you are reading about someone sent to prison years ago finally being freed because the DNA evidence finally showed that he or she wasn't there.
In the field of medical research DNA is being used to identify people who may be susceptible to a disease and also find out why those who are immune to a particular disease can successfully fight it off. Research such as this is expected to yield advances in disease prevention and cures in the next decade. It could also someday lead to a cure for some of our most devastating diseases through the field of genetic modification.
DNA also has a hand in the world of computers. I'll bet you didn't know what when you are using a search engine such as Yahoo or Google you are actually using technology that was built upon research that came about because of DNA. String search algorithms – think of it as keywords in a search engine – was advanced thanks to DNA research where it was needed to help find specific sequences of nucleotides inside much larger sequences. Even your word processor benefits from DNA research as it is being used to develop better text finding capabilities and searching algorithms for your PC.
The world of cloning has come about as a result of advanced in understanding how DNA is constructed inside humans and animals. This controversial area of science involves taking a DNA sample from one subject and then planting it into an unfertilized egg. By doing so an exact clone can be created of the subject that provided the DNA sample. Due to political and social concerns, this area of DNA research has very limited activity and is mostly limited to higher education research facilities.
The science of DNA has progressed rapidly since the mid-1980's when widespread use of DNA testing and unraveling of the markers inside different species finally started to take place -- spearheaded by the FBI of all places who wanted to develop the research into a tool to help track suspects. Because of its preciseness and benefit to medical research DNA testing and research has accelerated at an unbelievable pace. It is expected that within the next decade scientists will be able to explain fully every unique DNA marker that is contained within human beings. When this knowledge comes forth scientists will have an exact map of the human body that can be a boom to both medical advances and research into curing fatal diseases.