It is time to begin to learn about why we are who we are.  For example, is your hair blonde, brown, or red, and why?  How did you get to be either tall or short?   What color is your skin and how come?  Are you prone to Alzheimer's disease or certain types of cancer-- and how would you know?  What are your traits?

Sometimes, our traits are not so great, like when we have a genetic disease (for example, muscular dystrophy, Huntington's disease, or sickle cell anemia).  We may choose to try to avoid passing on bad traits to the next generation.  Other times traits can be desirable, and some good examples are when we breed animals for particular functions-- like cows for beef or milk production; in these cases we try to ensure that a large, muscular physique or the ability to produce large quantities of milk are retained in the specific population of cows.  And wouldn't it be incredible if we could figure out how to fix bad genes in people?  We could cure genetic diseases completely!

Exactly what is a heritable trait and how it is passed from generation to generation is our topic.   It will take us a couple of weeks to really get through all the material we need in our book (Chapter 9) about heredity, but I think you will find it interesting and useful to understand.

© 2006 STCC Foundation Press, content by Dawn A. Tamarkin, Ph.D.

Last changed: September 05, 2007