A Science Odyssey: You Try It: DNA Workshop

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An embryonic cell divides again and again. Where there was one cell there are two, then four, then eight,... Each holds all the genetic information needed to create a human being. How, exactly, do these cells make copies of themselves?

Hair grows from your head, nonstop, day in and day out. The cells of your hair follicles somehow generate all of the protein that make up this hair. How is this protein created?

The answers to these questions are DNA replication and protein synthesis.

Knowledge of the structure of DNA began with the discovery of nucleic acids in 1869. That genes control the synthesis of enzymes was understood in the 1940s. In 1953, an accurate model of the DNA molecule was presented, thanks to the work of Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, and Francis Crick.

The activity in this section places you within the cell, involving you with the processes of DNA replication and protein synthesis.

If you're interested in finding out more about DNA and protein synthesis, check out the other sections.

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A Science Odyssey: You Try It: DNA Workshop