Dear Doug,

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I am writing to you to inform you that my choice of subject matter will be genetics. Genetics is the study of genes, heredity, and variations of inherited characteristics. The traits that we inherit from our mother and father are called genes. Genes are encoded in a sequence of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) or RNA (ribonucleic acid), and through different factors (environment, mutations), they are always changing in a population, even at an individual level.

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Despite my basic understanding of genetics from high school courses, I am interested in genetics because of its relation to statistics and probability theory. For example, if a person with sickle-cell anemia reproduces with another person without the trait, will the offspring have sickle-cell anemia? Albeit a simple example, we can determine the probability of inheritance with a Punnett square. In my major, financial mathematics and statistics, we learn a lot about probability theory and mathematical statistics. In particular, I took a class called data mining. In this class, I found it fascinating that through principle component analysis, we can map specific genetic traits to different geographical regions. Because of this relationship, I believe that my less scientific major may compliment this area of science nicely.

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The three conceptual challenges I believe lay audiences will have are as follows:

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Dominant and Recessive Traits: In genetics, offspring often inherit two different characteristics for one trait (e.g eye color). Which one will be expressed? We can express the concept like this: recessive genes are the stars in the night sky and dominant genes are the sun. When the sun is out (when we have a dominant gene), you cannot see the stars (the recessive gene), but the stars are there. The only way to see the stars is when the sun is not there[1], or in other words, when the dominant gene is not there. To be interactive with lay audiences, there are many recessive traits on our bodies! Common examples include left-handedness, non-brown eye colors, and not having dimples. We can have our audience look for these traits and how they differ from their parents.

Mutations: Cells reproduce and multiply. In doing so, DNA must be copied and replicated. Because DNA is copied so frequently, often times, copies of new DNA may be different from the original which causes traits of an organism to change. This is called a mutation. You can easily demonstrate this concept with the children’s game “Telephone.” Say the first person in line that starts the game is the original DNA. Every time the message is passed from one ear to the next, we can say that this is DNA replicating itself. As the message is passed more and more, the message is unlike the original or in genetics, mutations occurring. One caveat is that in DNA replication, there are certain mechanisms that prevent errors from occurring, but they occur nonetheless.

Natural Selection: When a trait helps an individual survive and is passed down to their offspring. One can overcome this concept with an example of natural selection. There are short giraffes and tall giraffes. The tall giraffes can eat the leave of the tall trees. The short giraffes cannot eat so, they die. The tall giraffes reproduce and pass down their height. Their offspring can eat the leaves of the tall trees. See picture below[2].