To a child

There is a reason why some people are born boys and some people are born girls. There are even some people born in between. A large part of what I've learned is how living things are made. There are a lot of steps to making something live, and it always needs another living thing (a mom.) Did you know some thing don't need a dad to be born? Some things can have kids all by themselves, but people always need a mom and a dad to be born. There is a reason for it that I'm sure your parents would love to tell you about if you just ask them.

Whether a living thing needs two parents or one to be born, or whether it is born a boy or a girl or big or tall depends on some small parts of our body. Just like a hair is hard to see by itself but makes up a big part of your head, the rest of our bodies is made up of parts even harder to see but together they make up our body. One of these super tiny parts of our bodies is called DNA. This thing is so small we can never see it with our own eyes but DNA has the instructions for every part of our body. Its like the instruction manual for every person, and we get it from out parents, half from our dad and half from our mom. Learning about this “instruction manual” helps us figure out what happens when someone gets sick, or why some people grow tall or short or are boys or girls. Sometimes we can even read the instruction manual to find a way to help people before they get sick. If you ever wonder why a lizard is green, or why you have ten finger and ten toes, or why your teeth are white and your parents can't answer, don't worry. There is an answer; stay in school and you just might find it.

To a senior

There is always a specific reason why our bodies do the things they do, and why they wear out. A lot of the changes that happen to us are caused by changes in our genetic composition. DNA is the molecule that determines who we are. As we get older or get sick how we use our DNA, and sometimes even the DNA itself, changes. When it changes too much, or is changed in a bad way people get cancers. When someone exercises, DNA starts getting used to make muscles. When someone gets older, the DNA itself actually gets shorter.

Knowing about how these things change our DNA helps us figure out what to do when they something bad happens. Genetic disease isn't something that can be cured. We can only use our knowledge of DNA to detect problems and try to figure out exactly what went wrong, but we can't change a person's DNA. For example, some people are born without the ability to use phenylalanine. If a baby is given this amino acid, it can cause permanent mental retardation. This rare genetic condition has to be tested for when someone is born. This technology is still very new, so there aren't too many profound practical applications, but in the future genetics will continue to show us what is going on behind the scenes of our own bodies and hopefully we will be able to use that knowledge to live healthier, happier lives.