Notes Inheritance passes all the complex information required to develop a human being from parents to fertilised egg. Much of this information is the same e.g. the same organs are usually produced in the same place. Image details Large crowd of people – looking up. (Corbis)
Notes Very subtle differences exist in some of the information we receive, producing unique individuals. Image details Couple with newborn. ( Ariel Skelley/Corbis)
Notes Brothers and sisters aren’t identical (except for identical twins), so even people with the same parents must still get a unique combination of information from their parents. Image details Computer artwork of a human sperm approaching an egg during the process of fertilisation. ( Mehau Kulyk/Science Photo Library)
Notes To fit the complex information into such a small space, it must be carried as chemical molecules. Image details Light micrograph of a human egg cell after fertilization. (Richard G. Rawlins/Custom Medical Stock/Science Photo Library)
Notes Genes are made of a chemical called DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). This is a chemical code carrying the information needed to make a human being, in a similar way that letters in the alphabet form a code that we read as words. Image details Illustration of nucleus chromosomes genes, showing that each chromosome in the nucleus contains thousands of genes. (IFA Design/Oxford University Press)
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