DNA is often depicted in a quite monumental way. And this is quite comprehensible when you imagine what this molecule can do. It is the substance our genes are made of. For all readers, who are not 100% clear how the terms DNA, gene or genome relate to one another, the following short background articles are recommended:
In the middle of the 19th century, the botanist Matthias Schleiden and the physiologist Theodor Schwann developed the so-called cell theory. This states that all organisms - plants, animals, fungi - are made up of microscopic cells. These cells work together in a highly coordinated manner, but they are functional units that can be separated...
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If you look at the components of cells or the entire (e.g. human) organism, you will essentially find a relatively manageable spectrum of substance classes. As is well known, water is the most common molecule in the human body, so all other compounds act in this watery environment. In addition to some ions, the following...
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“Biologists create artificial life”, “May man play God?” These and similar headlines can be found increasingly in the daily press, especially in the last few years. However, the research that is actually behind the articles is often difficult or impossible to understand for most readers. What is CRISPR and what does it mean when it...
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“Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by human kind.” […] “Today we are learning the language in which God created life.”Bill Clinton, 2000 [1] That's how vividly Bill Clinton expressed it back in 2000, when the first full sequencing of a human genome was announced. But does the...
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So what are genes? - Well, they have something to do with DNA. If you don't know more about genes than that, there's no shame in it. The term “gene” has always been vague and it has remained so to this day. To illustrate how that is, this article has been divided into two parts:...
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