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Physiology & Medicine / Why are children all so different?
« on: 22/01/2009 11:30:01 »
Cameron Lapworth asked the Naked Scientists:
Hi Chris,
Firstly Love the show.
I was wondering what mechanism causes children born to the same parents all have different characteristics from each other?
I understand that half the Chromosomes come from the father and half the Mother so you'll always get a mixture of both parents characteristics. However, this simple understanding doesn't explain why they aren't all identical twins (albeit born at different times). So are the Chromosomes somehow jumbled further say chromosomes no. 2 from Mum and no. 4 from Dad? What mechanism controls individuality?
Ta, Cameron Lapworth
What do you think?
Hi Chris,
Firstly Love the show.
I was wondering what mechanism causes children born to the same parents all have different characteristics from each other?
I understand that half the Chromosomes come from the father and half the Mother so you'll always get a mixture of both parents characteristics. However, this simple understanding doesn't explain why they aren't all identical twins (albeit born at different times). So are the Chromosomes somehow jumbled further say chromosomes no. 2 from Mum and no. 4 from Dad? What mechanism controls individuality?
Ta, Cameron Lapworth
What do you think?