DNA

September 15, 2019

“A true wonderment”

         

          Just for a moment, let’s return to last week’s article. I’ve got it right here. Let’s see, Kroger had a sale on Pumpkin fritters. My family doesn’t like pumpkin, but I like pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread or cake. But I don’t like pumpkins in any other form, especially not as a coffee flavoring.

          Does any of that ring a bell? Last week’s article was meant to set you up for this week’s piece which deals with the biological factors that determine our likes and dislikes. Why do some people like jazz? Why are some four-year-olds able to write concertos, when most of us wouldn’t know a concerto if it took up residence in our left ear.

          Some believe that all of our likes and dislikes are determined by our upbringing. I feel certain that some of them are. When I was growing up, we never had an onion in our house. I was told they were stinky and without purpose on the planet. Well, while at college, I was accidentally served a hamburger with onions on it. I specifically told ‘em to the cut the onions, but there they were. By the way, I didn’t notice they were there until I took a bite. Turned out I was a big fan of onions and never knew it. Today, I pretty much refuse to cook any non-dessert item without onions.

          After saying that, I must say that much of our characteristics both mental and emotional are established at birth. Actually, at conception. Now this is one crazy story, so don’t swallow your root beer barrel.  I doubt many of us will be surprised by the fact that conception results when one cell from a male joins with one cell from a female, be they humans, animals or tomato plants.

         

          In humans, the male seed contains 23 chromosomes, each of which contain a wad of DNA and a bunch of protein cells. We’ve all heard of “DNA,” haven’t we? The tiny thing that looks like a multi-colored, spiral staircase, only a lot smaller. One of ‘em can only be seen with an electron microscope. Now the female cell contains 23 chromosomes also. Once the cells meet, the beginning of you is going to consist of 46 Chromosomes. So, half of you comes from your Dad’s side of the family and half from your Mom’s.

          Within three days, what began as two microscopic conjoined cells has split into 16 cells. And some of the DNA from your dad has split and joined a half strand of DNA from your mom. And, each tiny cell knows whether or not you’re going to be a boy or a girl, and whether or not you’re going to be faster than anyone at your grade school.   

          So, start splitting like wildfire. Splitting exponentially. One becomes two, two become four, four become 16, 16 become 256… and on and on until someone says, “Hey, it looks like Mark!”

          Of course, you couldn’t recognize me from any other blob of cells were it not for another type protein that latches on to each cell and takes it where it belongs. Some of your chromosomes will head for your eyeball, some to your toenails, some to your armpit… How does a cell of protein know to send a Chromosome to your eyeball? I doubt anyone knows the answer to that.

          The big question is, how does each cell manage to stay where it’s put? It wasn’t too long ago, that some quantum physicist detected proof of what is called a God Particle. It was actually named Higgs Boson after a physicist name Higgs who predicted its existence. “Boson” is the name for any super unusual particle, of which the God particle is. You see, it’s supposedly the God Particle that keeps objects in the universe together. Take the force of the God particle away and this solar system becomes microscopic particles that have no clue where they’re supposed to go. Kind of like me at my first day of school.

          You body contains its own God particle. Except, the human body’s God particle has been photographed with the aid of an electron microscope. The cell is laminin, and what it does is keep all your other cells together. Take it away and each of us will be a pile of goo.

          So, we’re each made up of a gazillion cells, each of which contain the mapping material of who we are. They’re in brain. They are our brain! And, liver and lung. Some of each of your cells contain traits that belong to your mom and your dad. And some were passed along from your grandpa and grandma, and your great grandma and grandpa. Some of my DNA came from the marriage of my sixth great grandpa Abraham Hayter who married Elizabeth Carter back in 1704 at a place called Winterbourne Earls in England.

          If I someone scraped together DNA from Abraham and Elizabeth, it could be determined that I had some of them in me. That means that there are live DNA that that managed to get from Winterbourne Earls to Conroe, TX and end up in me… and brothers and sisters, and nieces and nephews…

          And the thing that is the weirdest of all is the notion that this entire process managed to happen on its own. It was just happenstance that we’re even here, yet, we’re not only here, but we’re here because a couple of cells got together at one point, and each cell contained directions for how we were to be constructed. That’s a wonderment, if you ask me. Oh, and above all, it explains why most Hayters are not big fans of pumpkin.

hayter.mark@gmail.com – Please check out a talk given by Louie Giglio’s on You Tube. It’s called “How great is our God.” This guy is a so much greater speaker than I am a writer.