The Genetic Code

Little girls are made of sugar and spice
and everything nice.
Little boys are made made of
snakes, lizards and puppy dog tails.

When we were children this nursery rhyme summed up our knowledge of human life.

Now that we are adults, especially Catholic adults, it is imperative that we have a modern and complete understanding of human life.

As scientists looked at ever smaller and smaller units of matter they found that all living things were made of cells. 

There are only a few basic cell types; muscle, brain, skin or bone.  Animal cells are different than plant cells. Click on the cell to see all the parts of the cell.

All living things are made cells and all cells are made of molecules of protein.

And, every protein in our universe is made of the same Amino Acids. 

It turns out that little boys, girls and all other living things are made of the same stuff.

Let's see what that stuff is.

All living things are made of six lifeless chemicals. They form four bases that make up a special "code". The "code" arranges 22 amino acids to make zillions of proteins.

The six chemicals are:
Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Sulfur and Phosphorus.

Truly, man is  made out of the "dust" of the earth!

Click on the hound to follow the trail of this remarkable code...

But! Wait!

Where is this code?

How is this wonderful "code" passed from generation to generation?

It turns out, that all these chemicals are orchestrated by a single molecule.

That molecule is DNA!

DNA subtly weaves the myriad proteins into the fabric of our bodies. It defines who we are.

It is both the cause of our differences and the cause of our similarities.

Click on this DNA strand to see how this amazing molecule works.