"When controlling for age, and fat, they found that genes account for over half of the differences in womens' body sizes."
They were quick to point out that you can always work to change your body shape regardless of what your genes are. However, it really is easier for some than others.
While trying to figure out what color eyes and hair our baby would have, I discovered it wasn't nearly as straight forward as they taught me in middle school. I used to think it was brown eyes and blue eyes and brown was dominant, so you built your square, divided it into 4 and put Bb or bb or whatever across the top. So if my mom had brown eyes and my dad had blue eyes, I would be Bb and since Frank has blue eyes, he'd be bb, so there'd be a 50% chance our kids would have blue eyes.
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|
B |
b |
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b |
Bb (Brown) |
bb (blue) |
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b |
Bb (Brown) |
bb (blue) |
Well it turns out it's not so simple. For a taste of the new knowledge about eye color genetics, read Genetics of eye colour unlocked.
And I really, really want to know if our son will have red hair (Frank's hair is red) so I went online to find out how you can tell if your kid will have red hair. (I only learned about blond and brown in middle school science class.) Turns out that hair is controlled by the amount of two different pigaments, eumelanin and phomelanin, that you have. Instead of thinking blond or brown, think more like how much black am I going to put into this mix. Eumelanin controls the blond to black aspect. Phomelanin controls the how much red aspect. Because the gene that causes you to have lots of red pigment is "recessive" your family can carry it and yet not have any red heads but to have a red haired child, both parents must carry that gene. Here's the best article I found to describe it.
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