Expert Lecture Six… Is One Awesome Genetic Fix!

Expert lecture six happened just a few days ago! We learned about genetics (DNA). What are genetics? Genetics are the stuff that makes up you. Your eye color, the color of your hair and much more. Jonah’s mom, Sarah (the lecturer), is an expert on genetics. She knows so much about genetics, from the color-blind gene, to cancers passed down from a great-grandma. She also talked about, nature vs. nurture. Some stuff is just in your genetics, while other stuff is based on how you were raised. After the introduction, she brought out some toy soldiers. Wait… what do toy soldiers have to do with genetics?

Turns out toy soldiers can be very helpful when explaining the founder effect. What is the founder effect? Well, here’s how Sarah explained it… Basically, there was 30 people living on an island, plenty of genetic diversity. But then a title wave appears, leaving you with only 4 people. With 30 people there is over 800 possible matches, but with 4 people there is only 12 matches. The founder effect is that with less people comes less genetic diversity.

After that we made Harry Potter family trees. We traced the family tree of Harry Potter way back. We learned that how people die is one of the most important things. For example, if your grandfather dies of cancer, you might have sort sort of cancer too, since some cancer is genetic. It’s also important when your relatives die, that might determine how long you might live. However, on the other hand, if your grandpa dies at 30, but it’s from a gunshot (which is not genetic), you have nothing to worry about. There is a ton of elements that could determine your lifespan. Honestly I think the whole family tree thing is super cool! But what happened next made it go from super cool, to super awesome…

As Sarah’s last part other lecture, she used herself as an example. Her dad was color-blind. Because of this, each of her children has a 50% chance that they are color-blind. But how is that possible. Well you see, each gender has different chromosomes. Girls are XX, and boys are XY. So, even though she isn’t color blind, she still carries a color blind gene from her dad(his X), just not activated. Then when she has children, there is a 50% chance that she passes down the X chromosome that has the color blind gene on it. Luckily none of Sarah’s children are color blind. I was so engrossed in this lecture, I practically cried when it was over. I loved every bit of it! In conclusion, I greatly enjoyed this lecture, and I am anticipating the next one!

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