Science- Heredity and traits

After taking the interactive tour here, or http://learn.genetics.utah.edu, the things I learned were very interesting to me. Two of the many things I learned were very appealing to me. One thing I learned while taking this tour is that humans have two complete sets of chromosones (26 each, 46 in total). People receive half of their chromosomes from their mother and the other half from their father during conception. When the two sets join during conception, they form into a zygote, a single cell made up of the two sets of chromosomes. The cell divides and a child is formed. Another thing I learned was that each person has either a straight thumb or a hitch hiker thumb. If a person has one or the other is determined by allele the person inherits from their parents, or set of genetic information. The straight thumb allele is shown by a capital H and the hitch hiker thumb is shown by a lower case h. If a person receives one H from one parent and one H from another, they will have a straight thumb, so two h's mean they will have a hitch hikers thumb. But if a person recieves one H and one h, they will have a straight thumb because the H is the dominate allele and the h is recessive. The H covers or "masks" the h. Out of all the fascinating things I learned from this tour, these two stood out the most. You can take this tour by clicking here, or scrolling back to the top.