Chromosomes and Mitosis

Your body is basically a walking, talking collection of trillions of cells, and each one contains a nucleus packed with chromosomes. Think of chromosomes as tightly coiled instruction manuals made of DNA that tell your cells how to work.

Here's the clever bit: you've got two copies of each chromosome - one from your mum and one from your dad. Humans have 23 pairs, so 46 chromosomes in total. Each chromosome carries loads of genes that control everything from your hair colour to how tall you'll grow.

The cell cycle is like a carefully choreographed dance that creates new cells for growth, development, and repair. The star of the show is mitosis - the actual splitting process that turns one cell into two identical daughter cells.

Quick Fact: Every time you get a cut that heals or grow taller, mitosis is working behind the scenes to create the new cells you need!

Before any cell can divide, it needs to get organised. The cell grows bigger and makes more subcellular structures like mitochondria and ribosomes - basically stocking up on the equipment both new cells will need to survive.