The Gene

The gene is the object that is the central topic and focus of this entire book. As the book travels through history, the gene takes many different forms and manifestations as scientists throughout time theorize about its nature and eventually, in the last 150 years, begin to unlock the secrets of its composition and functions. The gene begins as an abstract concept that serves as a vague unit or mechanism of heredity. With Mendel's work in the 19th century, its physical qualities begin to come clear. It is an indivisible unit of heredity that passes biological information from parents to children. With much further research over the next decades, the gene's structures and components will become clearer. It is comprised of nucleic acid and four bases in a double-helical structure. It resides on chromosomes and many genes come together to create the entire genome of a species...