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How do
you define sex? Scientists define sex as the exchange of inherited
traits.
 Over
a hundred years ago, there was a raging debate over whether we
could inherit things that happen to us in our environment. For
example, if your parents had lifted weights and became super
strong, would they have passed that on to you when you were
born? The answer is a definite NO. What can be passed on to
children is how much capability you will have for responding
to the lifting of weights.
In cells, the instructions begin in the genes,
which are found in the structures called chromosomes inside
the cell nucleus. Chromosomes contain the DNA, and specific
sequences of base pairs code for specific amino acids, which are the building blocks
of proteins.
The beginning of our modern understanding
of the coding scheme began in 1857 with the experiments of Gregor
Mendel.
Click here for
a complete outline of the key historical events. Story
Time tells about Gregor and how he came to be so famous.
Relation of a Plant to its Cells to its Genes
Mendel's
tedious experiments led him to some brilliant conclusions in the
form of two principles that later became known as the laws of
heredity.
To really
understand this, let's explore:
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