Kids Corner

They tell your body how to grow and work. They’re like a detailed instruction manual written just for you. You get your genes from your parents – half from your mum and half from your dad.

Your genes help make you who you are!

each too small to see without a microscope. Different cells have different jobs. Cells in your eyes help you see, cells in your skin protect you from germs, and cells in your hair make it grow. Even though they’re very, very small, your cells are always hard at work!

Inside almost every cell is something called the nucleus. This is where your genes are kept. Your genes live on special strings called chromosomes. Your genes work together like a recipe. Just as a recipe decides what a cake will be like – perhaps sticky chocolate or zingy lemon – your genes decide things like your eye colour, if you’re good at singing and many other things. This complete set of recipes is called your DNA.

Sometimes small changes in the DNA “recipe” can make someone really good at something, like remembering facts, playing music, or drawing. Other times, these changes might mean certain parts of the body do not work as well as they should and need extra help.

Interesting fact: If you could unwind all the DNA from just one of your cells and stretch it out, it would be about 2 metres long! And if you could connect all the DNA in ALL your cells, it would reach to the moon and back thousands of times!