Term 1 of 2026 was about the topic of biology. This blog is the details of what I have learnt.
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is found in all things that are undoubtedly alive and known by our scientists. DNA is basically the instructions for a living thing it is found as long strands of a twisted-ladder-like structure. The rungs of the ladder are (unless something is wrong) made of nitrogenous bases, phosphates, and sugars in between the base and the phosphate. One nitrogenous base, a phosphate, and sugar is called a nucleotide. In a normal and healthy situation, each of the rungs of the ladder will be made of two bases, either adenine with thymine, or cytosine with guanine. This pairing is called the “complementary base pairing rule”. The nitrogenous bases form bonds called hydrogen bonds and the two parts that run the length of the DNA form covalent bonds. Specific parts of DNA give the characteristics of a living thing. A gene is a section of DNA that controls what a living thing will feature. A gene can function because of the structure of DNA. A trait is the features of a living thing; these features are a result of the gene. Inherit is a word that, when used in biology, often means traits going from one living thing to another; most commonly from living thing to its offspring. It is possible to inherit traits because of genes. To predict traits that will be inherited, a punnet square is helpful. A punnet square can be used to predict the percentage chance of a trait in offspring. To use a punnet square (for unbiased mixing of two genes of the same trait type each from two parents where the offspring will have two genes from its parents), make a square that is 3 smaller squares tall and 3 smaller squares wide. For the following instructions, note that the squares are numbered top-left corner going right, then down one row when needed, then starting on the left of the lower row and so on. Put the separated genes (write letters to represent the genes) from parent 1 in square 2 and 3, for parent 2, put the letters that represent genes into square 4 and 7. Fill in squares 5,6,8, and 9 with the letters across and up from it.