Reproduction and Cell Division

Why do some children look more like one parent than another? How can two parents with dark hair have a child with red hair? How can two dark-skinned parents have a baby that has light skin? Everyone has wondered these questions, but in order to understand such unexpected outcomes, an understanding of what Gregor Mendel discovered—the rules of genetics—is necessary. This book reproduces Mendel's original data that Mendel used to discover how traits are passed from one generation to the next. In addition to the rules governing DNA inheritance, this book also examines how cells reproduce—all cells. Do bacterial cells reproduce the same way animal cells do? And when a person has a cut that needs to heal, do those cells reproduce the same way that sperm and egg cells are produced? How do all these cells keep track of how much DNA is needed in order to function properly? Data will be examined that explains how reproduction works for every cell on the planet.