Interesting and Cool Facts About Human's DNA

It's really fun, useful and interesting to found out Facts about our  DNA.

So continue reading below :

1. DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid.
2. DNA is part of our definition of a living organism and DNA is found in all living things.
3. DNA was first isolated in 1869 by Friedrich Miescher. Then James Watson and Francis Crick figured out the structure of DNA.
4. Almost all the cells in our body have DNA with the exception of red blood cells.
5. A parent and child share 99.5% of the same DNA.
6. You have 98% of your DNA in common with a chimpanzee.
7. If you could type 60 words per minute, eight hours a day, it would take approximately 50 years to type the human genome.
8. If you put all the DNA molecules in your body end to end, the DNA would reach from the Earth to the Sun and back over 600 times (100 trillion times six feet divided by 92 million miles).
9. Humans and cabbage share about 40-50% common DNA.
10. Humans have at least 30,000 genes but Goldfish have more genes than humans do.
11. DNA is the “blueprint” of life.
12. Every human being shares 99% of their DNA with every other human.
13. Our entire DNA sequence is called a genome and there’s an estimated 3 billion DNA bases in our genome.
14. Changes in the DNA sequence are called mutations, Many thing can cause mutations, including UV irradiation from the sun, chemicals like drugs, etc. Mutations can involve more than one DNA base, Mutations can involve entire segments of chromosomes.
15. Even though it codes for all the information that makes up an organism, DNA is built using only four building blocks, the nucleotides adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine.
16. Your gender and physical characteristics are determined by your DNA.
17. The DNA ladder usually twists to the right.
18. One million bases (called a megabase and abbreviated Mb) of DNA sequence data is roughly equivalent to 1 megabyte of computer data storage space.
19. If you unwrap all the DNA you have in all your cells, you could reach the moon 6000 times!
20. DNA tests can help you understand your risk of disease.
21. A DNA mutation or variation may be associated with a higher risk of a number of diseases, including breast cancer.
22. DNA tests can help you understand your family history aka genetic genealogy.
23. Genes are made of DNA.
24. Genes are pieces of DNA passed from parent to offspring that contain hereditary information.
25. DNA is affected by the environment; environmental factors can turn genes on and off.
26. DNA is used in identify victims of accidents or crime.
27. DNA is used to exonerate innocent people who’ve been wrongly convicted.
28. Many countries, including the US and UK, maintain a DNA database of convicted criminals.
29. DNA can be extracted from many different types of samples: blood, cheek cells, urine.
30. DNA can be stored either as cells on a cotton swab, buccal brush, or frozen blood or in extracted form.
31. In forensics, DNA analysis usually looks at 13 specific DNA markers (segments of DNA).
32. Our sex cells–eggs and sperm–have only half of our total DNA.
33. Lists about DNA can get a little boring.

Source :

http://chemistry.about.com/od/lecturenoteslab1/a/10-Interesting-Dna-Facts.htm

http://www.eyeondna.com/2007/08/20/100-facts-about-dna/