Even though a DNA molecule is amazingly complicated, it's comprised of just 4 building blocks: the nucleotides adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine.
Every human being on Earth shares over 99% of their DNA with everyone else.
If you could take all the DNA molecules in your body and line them up end-to-end, it would reach from the Earth to the Sun and back over 600 times!
It's possible for a parent and child to share 99.5% of the same DNA.
Humans and chimpanzees share around 98% of their DNA in common.
If you could type 60 words per minute for eight hours every day, it would take around 50 years to type the entire human genome.
DNA is fragile, and can be damaged or mutated by a number of factors. Some mutations are useful, some are simply harmless, and some cause diseases such as cancer.
Scientists at Cambridge University believe humans have DNA in common with the mud worm and that it is the closest invertebrate genetic relative to us.
Humans share about 40-50% of their DNA in common with a cabbage!
DNA was discovered by Friedrich Miescher 1869, although it wasn't until 1943 that scientists understood genetic information was stored in DNA. Up until that point, it was widely believed that proteins stored genetic information.
More information about DNA testing can be found here and here.
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