ALGONA - Did you know that all living organisms have DNA?
That humans share 50 percent of their DNA with bananas?
That 99.9 percent of every human's DNA is identical, that one-tenth of 1 percent is all that makes everybody unique?
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and all living organisms. Friday, April 24, the Algona High School biology classes celebrated DNA Day, commemorating the completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003, and the discovery of DNA's double helix.
Biology teacher Steve Young at Algona High School had students in his class extract DNA from kiwi fruit earlier in the week. On Friday the students swished a salt water solution in their mouths to extract cheek cells that they then extracted DNA cells from to compare to the kiwi fruit.
Young explained to the students that when the genome project began, it took nine years in the 1980s to find the gene that caused cystic fibrosis, nine days in 1999 to find the gene for Parkinson's Disease and nine seconds in 2001 to discover the gene for Crohn's disease.
"DNA can store 25 gigabytes of information per inch," Young explained.
The students then began to compare that to the storage capacity of their iPods before embarking on the cheek DNA experiment.
While they were waiting to extract the DNA, Young made a DNA-smoothie from frozen strawberries, a banana, honey, tofu and orange juice.
"Everything I put in here had DNA," Young explained. Several teenagers grimaced at the mention of tofu, but several returned for seconds after tasting the smoothie.
The students also learned several other facts about DNA before the end of class. For more information on the Human Genome Project visit www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/home.shtml