CRACKING THE CODE OF LIFE QUESTIONS
1. What % of genes in a banana are found in us?
2. How many more genes do humans have than fruit flies?
3. How long did they predict it would take to decode the human genome?
4. What does Tay Sachs disease do to a babies’ brain?
5. Who does a child get the gene for Tay Sachs from?
6. What was slowing down the government teams?
7. By early 2000, how many base pairs/sec were rolling out?
8. How many times were the fundamental mechanisms for life worked out on
this planet?
9. Why doesn’t work get done on certain regions of DNA molecules?
10. Are genes one-dimensional or 3-dimensional?
11. What do genes do – basically?
12. What was every week like at Solaris?
13. How many of the 17 children have arthritis?
14. What are the “guys in the funny suits” making?
15. BRCA mutations cause what percentage of breast cancers?
16. What would most changes we make to DNA today do to the machine?
17. What do you come away from reading the genome realizing?
18. What can “we and we alone do”?
19. It was long thought that humans had around 100,000 genes. The initial
survey of the human genome indicated that there were only about
__________ genes in humans.
20. What interesting fact about human genes allows humans to be so much
more complex than something like a fruit fly?
CRACKING THE CODE OF LIFE QUESTIONS
KEY
21. What % of genes in a banana are found in us?
50%
22. How many more genes do humans have than fruit flies?
Double the #
23. How long did they predict it would take to decode the human genome?
15 years
24. What does Tay Sachs disease do to a babies’ brain?
Destroys it
25. Who does a child get the gene for Tay Sachs from?
Both parents
26. What was slowing down the government teams?
The machines were breakingBy early 2000, how many base
pairs/sec were rolling out?
1000
27. How many times were the fundamental mechanisms for life worked out on
this planet?
once
28. Why doesn’t work get done on certain regions of DNA molecules?
Patents
29. Are genes one-dimensional or 3-dimensional?
1-D
30. What do genes do – basically?
Make proteins
31. What was every week like at Solaris?
intense
32. How many of the 17 children have arthritis?
11
33. What are the “guys in the funny suits” making?
Gene chips
34. BRCA mutations cause what percentage of breast cancers?
5 to 10 %
35. What would most changes we make to DNA today do to the machine?
Break it
36. What do you come away from reading the genome realizing?
We are so similar to every other creature on the planet
37. What can “we and we alone do”?
Wonder
38. That there were only about 30,000 genes.