And then there was life…

God’s recipe for a living system is found in Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA for those who can’t wrap their tongue around that word.   We are God’s creation.   We are here on this world to acknowledge Him, proclaim Him as our Lord, and do his will.  After all He did make all things, even those microscopic things we can’t see.

Sometimes, but thankfully not too often, we as mere humans believe we can play God.  Today in Biology class, we did just that.  We think, if God can do it, then so can we.

I, the facilitator, decided the students were smart enough to create life from a double strand of DNA.  Here is what we did.

We brain-stormed.  That is what smart people do, when they want to accomplish something this big.  I mean, it really isn’t easy making a DNA.

 

We know DNA consists of a backbone which is the deoxyribose and phosphate group.  It also has a nucleotide base which can be one of four different types;  adenine, thymine, guanine or cytosine.  DNA also contains a hydrogen bond that hold the nucleotides together.

We gather our ingredients.

Backbone   Twizzlers
Hydrogen Bond   toothpicks
adenine    pink marshmallow
thymine    green marshmallow
guanine    yellow marshmallow
cytosine    orange marshmallow

With nerves of steel, the students begin to build their DNA. Adenine to thymine, guanine to cytosine, pink to green, yellow to orange. Hydrogen Bond was used to attach the nucleotide base and the backbone was also attached.

It was hard grueling work, but they persevered and finished the job. Life will soon begin….

Once the DNA was completed after  25 minutes hours and hours, the students stepped back and looked at their work.

And they called it good.

Then the students slowly turn to their facilitator with a questioning gaze. Is it time for life to begin? Yes, she says and with a wild gleam in her eye she yells,

“Throw the switch, Igor! Throw the switch!”

and then…

We all turned into a bunch of silly freaks and decided it wasn’t a good idea to play God.   So, we ate the  evidence  DNA and hope that God will forgive our wrong doing.

I just hope we didn’t eat any mutated DNA. 

If you think you are brave enough to make your own DNA, you can find the full instructions at Teach.Genetics.   If you are still here afterwards, let me know how it went.

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