In the tradition of newspaper Christmas quizzes or bumper crossword puzzles, I had the bright idea that we could publish something similar here. In the true Blue Peter tradition, here is one that Kelly prepared earlier – it is a genetics quiz. She was happy to note that Prof Ammar Al-Chalabi made reference to one of these stats in his very accessible talk in the closing session of the symposium in Orlando.
The answers will be published in a week or so.
Happy Christmas to you all!
Genes quiz
Possible answers to questions: 2, 5, 20, 30, 90, 98, 100, 380
- What percentage of our genes do we share with a chimp?
- What percentage of our genes do we share with a mouse?
- Our genetic code is wrapped up into 46 organisational structures called ‘chromosomes’. How many chromosomes does a butterfly have?
- If you were to start reciting the order of your genetic code tomorrow morning, letter by letter at 1 per second, how many years would pass before you reached the end (no breaks!)?
- If the total DNA in one person were laid in a straight line, how many times would it stretch to the sun and back (distance 93 million miles)?
- How many genes (approximately) do we have in thousands?
- How much of our DNA codes for proteins?
- An onion has how many times more DNA than we do?
I make the answers: 98, 90, 380, 100, 20, 30, 2 and 5. I had to guess some by process of elimination…how did I do?