Chromosomes and Coffee Club

A night out with the Barker Boys, a lesson from Julian, our 'life science geek' and a 'suanning'( English = tease / make fun off ) session between PJ and Julian.

Chromosomes
noun: a threadlike body in the cell nucleus that carries the genes in a linear order



Chromosomes are compact spools of DNA. If you were to stretch out all the DNA from one of your cells, it would be over 3 feet (1 meter) long from end to end! You can think of chromosomes as "DNA packages" that enable all this DNA to fit in the nucleus of each cell. Normally, we have 46 of these packages in each cell; we received 23 from our mother and 23 from our father.

There are 22 numbered pairs of chromosomes, plus two sex chromosomes. The sex chromosomes in females are two X chromosomes and in males they are an X and a Y chromosome.

There is one exception to the rule that every cell contains 23 pairs of chromosomes. These are the reproductive cells, or more specifically the egg and sperm cells. They each contain one-half of the normal number, or 23 chromosomes instead of 23 pairs. This means that the union of an egg and sperm cell will create a new cell with just the right amount of genetic material for a new person. You have inherited one chromosome of each pair, or half of your genetic material from each of your parents. Each of your children will inherit one of each pair from you.

Maybe.. Just maybe in the future, we will see an 'ad' like this !


Coffee Club

Delicious Garlic Prawns Pasta... Ice Rambutan Drink ! ( It gave me a brain freeze ! OUCH ! ) Calamari Rings and Potato Wedges.... Yummy....