2010 National DNA Day Online Chatroom Transcript

This is just one question from an archive of the National DNA Day Moderated Chat held in April 2010. The NHGRI Director and many genomics experts from across NHGRI took questions from students, teachers and the general public on topics ranging from basic genomic research, to the genetic basis of disease, to ethical questions about genetic privacy.

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What is a DNA?      Barry Starr, Ph.D.: I run a program out of Stanford's Department of Genetics where I train science graduate students how to communicate science to the public. I do this by having the students run fun hands on genetics activities at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose and by having them answer people's genetics questions online at our Understanding Genetics website. DNA is information. Think of DNA as a collection of cookbooks that contains all the recipes for making and running living things like worms, plants, birds, and people. These recipes determine whether you're a man or a woman, give you your eye color, and tell your body to have two arms and legs, instead of branches and leaves, or tentacles. Almost all of the trillions of cells in your body contain a copy of the entire cookbook collection in a smaller compartment inside the cell called the nucleus. East Haven High School in CT (10th grade student)

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