Ask a Geneticist

I read the article on which the author talks about why chromosomes are split into seperate chromosomes and aren't one long strand. This article had several interesting facts, for example: One reason this is is because of how each different "beast" reproduces. Another factoid from this interesting article is we all have two copies of every chromosome, our parents give us half of their DNA, which equals one total chromosome, and at the end of the chromosome we have two pairs of our own, personal DNA. I never knew this was why this object is in the shape of a double helix, or figure eight. One final piece of information is that over time, pieces of chromosome break off, and stick to other chromosomes. I found this interesting because i thought the things in our bodies were indestructable, unless you actually did try to break something, but this proves me otherwise.