Question

cat and you: dna doubles?
does ridi - claw - lously worried actually have something to be worried about? is the dna in cat hair the same as the dna in human hair?
the stringy stuff in the test tube is dna. but you cant tell which organisms it comes from just by looking at it. thats because dna looks exactly the same in every organism on earth. all living things have dna. and whether it comes from you, a pea plant, or your pet rat, its all the same molecule.
what is dna? dna is short for deoxynbonucleic acid. dna is an essential molecule for life. you read that right, dna is just a molecule. a very important molecule. it contains the instructions telling our bodies how to develop and function. dna acts sort of like a computer program code. your bodyreads the code written in your dna so that it can function, grow and survive.
watch the video \what are dna and genes?\ and complete the information in the model below.
dna facts:

1. dna has a ______ helix shape.

similar to a twisted ladder.

1. ______ are small segments of dna that act like code for a trait.
2. if you unraveled all the dna molecules in your body and placed them end to end, it would stretch to the ______ and back several times.
3. dna coils itself into tightly packed ______.
4. humans cells contain ______ pairs of chromosomes, so 46 per cell.
5. almost ______ cell in the human body contains dna: the cells in your skin, the hair on your head, and even your big toe has dna.
6. a cells set of dna is called its ______

Explanation:

To answer these questions, we rely on basic knowledge of DNA structure and function (from Biology, a subfield of Natural Science):

1. DNA has a \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ helix shape.

DNA’s structure is a double helix (two strands twisted like a ladder).

Answer:

double

2. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ are small segments of DNA that act like code for a trait.

Genes are segments of DNA that code for specific traits (e.g., eye color, height).