Lead
Since ancient times, burial has been the main funeral method in China, but in addition to allowing relatives and friends to set up a tombstone for the deceased in their hearts, it also leaves burial items for future generations, which plays an important role in historical research.
However, with the continuous development of the times, cremation has gradually replaced the main position of burial in modern times, will there still be genes in the human body in the ashes after cremation?
As a unit of heredity, genes have a profound impact on life, so where do genes go?
1. The uniqueness of genes.
Genes refer to the specific genetic material in the nucleus of a cell.
It is the genetic unit of organisms, an important carrier for controlling biological genetic information, and a material basis for determining biological characteristics.
Genes are made up of a combination of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which is the main form of genes in most nucleated cells.
DNA is made up of a large number of nucleotide chains.
Nucleotides are made up of a deoxyribose molecule, a phosphoric acid molecule, and a nitrogenous base molecule.
DNA contains four nucleotides: adenine (A), cytosine (T), guanine (G), and thymine (C).
These nucleotide chains are combined to form DNA, and these base pairs contained in the DNA have a specific regularity.
A and T are connected by two hydrogen bonds, and G and C are connected by three hydrogen bonds, so A, T and G and C correspond to each other.
Genes are made up of thousands to millions of base pairs, and the genes formed by the different permutations and combinations of base pairs have a decisive impact on our biological characteristics and life processes.
In addition, due to the asymmetry of the DNA chain structure, the order in which a base pair is arranged is unique throughout the composition of the gene, as if the code had undergone a specific encryption process.
Therefore, the information contained in genes is extremely abundant, and the order of genes is also naturally unique, so it can be said that genes are the most unique code of human beings.
Each person's genes are unique, just like there has never been a code in the world, and there will never be the same code again.
It is the uniqueness of genes that makes every life unique existence, and in this world, no life is exactly the same.
It is this uniqueness of genes that makes different people reflect huge differences, some people are born smart, some people are born to live longer, while some people are frail and sickly, and some people are even born with some genetic diseases.
It is this difference in genes that allows people to continuously produce a variety of different biological forms in the continuous production, and also allows organisms to produce a variety of different life forms in the continuous evolution.
Therefore, it can be said that genes are the basis of human evolution, and they are also the most direct cause of changes in life forms, and they are also an important reason for the impact on life and health.
2. The sound of genes on life.
Most cells in the human body contain the same genes, but the traits expressed by these genes are very different.
Someone once did an experiment - cloning.
In this experiment, scientists used a special technique to extract nuclei from the cells of one organism and implant these nuclei into another cell body, so that cloning technology can produce organisms that are identical to the organisms with nuclei.
In this experiment, although the nucleus of these cloned animals is the same, after they have given birth, the animals born have very different characteristics, some cloned animals are healthy and long-lived, some cloned animals are weak and sickly, and some animals even suffer from some genetic diseases.
Why does the same nucleus give rise to so different organisms?
This is because the information expressed by genes has an extremely important impact on life.
In the nucleus of each person, there are two identical sets of genomes, one from the father and one from the mother.
After the fertilized egg is formed, the information contained in the two sets of genomes will merge with each other to form a new genome, so that a new life will be formed.
In this process, if the information contained in the genome of the father and mother is different, then the children they produce will have different characteristics.
This difference is not only reflected in the physiological structure, but also in the physiological function and psychological characteristics, some children are born smart, some children are born with strong ability, some children are frail and sickly, and even some children are born with some genetic diseases.
These are traits that are expressed by genes, and they are also known as genetic traits.
Therefore, the impact of genes on life is extremely huge, and people's individual differences are also caused by the differences in genes.
It is this kind of individual difference that allows organisms to produce a variety of life forms in the process of evolution, and in the process of life, they usher in a thousand strange landscapes.
3. After a person is cremated, where do the genes go?
Since ancient times, burial has been the main funeral method in the mainland, but burial not only occupies a lot of land resources, but also due to the relatively backward living standards of people, the corpse after burial is more likely to form miasma in the process of decay, which has great harm to people's health.
Therefore, with the continuous development of the times, cremation has gradually replaced the status of burial and has become one of the main ways of funeral in the mainland.
In cremation, the body is placed in a crematorium, the body is incinerated at a high temperature, and the body is burned to ashes, which are then collected.
As cremation continues to evolve, there are also concerns that genes in the human body will be destroyed during the cremation process.
However, people do not have to worry that although the DNA contained in the human body will be destroyed by the high temperature during the cremation process, and the base pairs in the ashes formed by the human body will also be destroyed after the barbecue, this will not affect the forensic examination.
During cremation, the base pairs in the ashes formed by the human body are also destroyed, but this does not affect the forensic identification.
Because in this process, the order of the base pairs can still be identified by science and technology, so as long as the sequence of base pairs does not change, the forensic doctor can identify the identity of the corpse through the information contained in these bases.
Therefore, it can be said that the genes contained in the corpse during the cremation process have been destroyed by high temperature and do not exist in the ashes of the human body, but the residual information contained in the ashes left by cremation can still be used by forensic medicine to identify the identity of the corpse.
epilogue
Genes are the basis of human evolution, and they are also the most direct cause of the impact on life, so we must deepen our respect for life, cherish life, cherish the connection with relatives, and always be vigilant that life will eventually come to an end, and do not do things that we regret in our lifetime.
At the same time, although the genes are destroyed in cremation, the residual information contained in the ashes left by cremation can still be used by forensic doctors to identify the identity of the corpse, which also shows the important role of science and technology in criminal investigation and identification, and also reflects the impact of the development of science and technology on society.
In the process of cremation, the base pairs contained in the human body will also be destroyed, so the sequence composed of base pairs extracted from the ashes of the human body can provide new ideas for the study of fireproof materials, and also show the potential of genetic research in practical applications.