By: Matthew Goforth

Genes/Chromosomes  What decides how you or any organism looks?  At the most basic level, its your chromosomes that decide what traits you inherit.  A chromosome is comprised of your dna wrapped around protein.  Humans have 26 pairs of chromosomes.  Half of these are inherited from your father and the other half come from your mother.

Cells  There are two main groups of cells in your body. Somatic cells: These cells are all your regular body cells. Everyone of your somatic cells contain all 46 of your chromosomes whether they’re relevant to that cells purpose or not. Germ cells: These are your sex cells. Your germ cells only contain half of your chromosomes. Each one of these cells are different

Meiosis/Mutations  Meiosis is the process of which germ cells reproduce.  In meiosis each one of the resulting four cells created have a different combination of your chromosomes inside, 23 picked from both the chromosomes passed down from your mother and father.  This results in 2^23 different combinations of your chromosomes can be found in each of your germ cells

Reproduction  In Sexual reproduction, one germ cell from the male meets with one germ cell from the female and combine to create a baby.  Since there are 2^23 combinations for each of your germ cells, there are 2^46 combinations of chromosomes passed onto a child just between one couple.  This Leads to tremendous variations that can appear in just the human race.

Variation  Variation is the difference between organisms in the same species.  There are almost endless combinations of genes and chromosomes that can appear and cause variation, alongside mutations.  Between one human couple there are around 70,368,744,180,000 completely different combinations!

Natural Selection  Natural Selection is when the best traits of a species are selected to thrive.  Because of all the different combinations and variations within a species, certain variations are going to be more fit to survive then other variations.  The variations that are more fit will be more likely to survive and pass on their traits then the variations that are not as fit. Eventually the less fit variations will die off and the fittest will thrive.  If this happens when two groups of the same species get separated, this could lead to a whole new species created.