--- title: DNA simply: the recipe in every cell — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «DNA simply: the recipe in every cell», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Almost every cell in your body carries a copy of the same long recipe book, called DNA, and it is shaped like a twisted ladder. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / DNA simply: the recipe in every cell # DNA simply: the recipe in every cell Lesson 277 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/0/) — Almost every cell in your body carries a copy of the same long recipe book, called DNA, and it is shaped like a twisted ladder. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/1/) — The recipe is written with only four chemical letters, A, T, C and G, and the order of the rungs tells the cell how to build and run a body, just as the order of letters in a cake recipe tells you what to bake. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/2/) — Stretched out, the DNA from one tiny cell would be about two metres long, so it is wound up very tightly, like a garden hose coiled into a matchbox. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/3/) — You got half your DNA from your mum and half from your dad, mixed in a new way, which is why you can have your mum's eyes and your dad's ears while your sister looks different. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/4/) — Small copying mistakes in DNA, called mutations, are how living things slowly change, so DNA is both the recipe of one body and the long history of life. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/5/) — DNA is a long molecule shaped like a twisted ladder, found in almost every cell; the order of its rungs is a recipe for building and running a body. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/6/) — DNA uses only four chemical letters: A, T, C and G. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/7/) — Stretched out, the DNA in one human cell is about two metres long, packed tightly into the tiny nucleus; all the DNA in a body would reach the Sun and back many times. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/8/) — You get half your DNA from your mother and half from your father; which parts you get is a mix, so brothers and sisters differ, but identical twins share the same DNA. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/9/) — Many basic recipes in cells, such as how to use energy, are shared by all life, so a person shares many genes with a banana in a broad sense; the numbers you hear are rough and often misused. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/10/) — People share about 98 percent of their DNA with chimpanzees, our closest living relatives; we had a common ancestor about 6 to 7 million years ago, and small differences in the recipe make big differences in body and brain. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/11/) — Everyone except identical twins has slightly different DNA, so a sample from hair roots, skin or spit can identify a person and show who is related to whom. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/12/) — Neanderthals were close human relatives who died out long ago; scientists have read DNA from Neanderthal bones tens of thousands of years old and found that many people today carry a small part of Neanderthal DNA; Svante Pääbo won a Nobel Prize for this in 2022. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/13/) — Changes in DNA are called mutations; they happen when cells copy DNA with small mistakes, and most do nothing, some are harmful and a few are useful. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/14/) — Mutations are the raw material of evolution. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/15/) — Animals shed skin and slime into water, so testing a cup of lake water can show which fish, frogs or rare animals live there; this is called environmental DNA. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/16/) — Dog DNA tests compare a dog's DNA with many breeds and can show a mix of breeds; all dog breeds carry DNA from wolves. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/277-dna-simply-the-recipe-in-every-cell/17/) — DNA studies suggest there may be four species of giraffe, not one, which matters for protecting each kind; scientists still debate how many there are. - ← previous: [How old is it? Rock layers, rock clocks, amber and the long story of life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/276-how-old-is-it-rock-layers-rock-clocks-amber-and-the-long-story-of-life/) - next →: [Evolution: why giraffes really have long necks](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/278-evolution-why-giraffes-really-have-long-necks/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)