Lefty/Righty

In high school we studied genetics. My biology teacher was a brilliant teacher. He was also quick to let us know he was always right but that is another story for another day.

We learned about DNA which was a fairly new idea. Humans have strands of 23 traits. One strand inherited from the mother and one strand inherited from the father curve around each other. Those determine eye color, hair color, and whether or not you can curl your tongue.

Some traits are dominant and some are recessive. In other words brown eyes are more likely to be inherited than blue eyes.

One of the most impressive examples is handedness. If a person is left-handed both genes have to be for left-handedness. I am left-handed. For me to be left-handed each of my right-handed parents had to have a hidden left-handed gene. I therefore have two left-handed genes.

I married a right-handed man. He had lefties in his family so the possibility of him having a hidden left-handed gene were strong.

According to my high school biology this is a grid of possibilities that my children would be left-handed.

                                                       LL    LL

                                                RL   LL    LL               

                                                RL   RL    RL

This shows that if I were to have four children two would be left-handed and two would be right-handed with a recessive left gene. 

Well I have four children. Two are left-handed and two are right. Interesting?