DNA is a double helix made up of 4 building blocks -bases- called adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C) and guanine (G). The human body contains almost 3 billion bases of DNA.

We are made of 
We are made of DNA
Deoxyribonucleic
Acid is what we are made of
We are made of DNA
We are made of DNA
Strands of
Are where all these bodies came from

In the story of life on this crazy planet
The protagonist isn’t man, no
It’s a
Called deoxyribonucleic acid
The DNA strand has the same basic plan
In , every plant
Every animal, every little flea
Has the same with a certain percentage
Of the same arranged identically
It’s no coincidence; it means every living thing
Has a with every living thing
This is true for Jews and Christians and Sufi mystics
And Buddhists and every religion and superstition
If you can listen to this it means you’re passing through
This existence on a
And you’re just one of its newest inventions

Although genes get a lot of attention, its the proteins that perform most life functions and make up the majority of cellular structures. Proteins are large, complex molecules made up of smaller subunits called amino acids. Chemical properties that distinguish the 20 different amino acids cause the protein chains to fold up into specific three-dimensional structures that define their particular functions in the cell. Courtesy of: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science

We are made of DNA
We are made of DNA
Deoxyribonucleic
Acid is what we are made of
We are made of DNA
We are made of DNA
Strands of double helix
Are where all these bodies came from

Now if you want me to tell you how a simple molecule
Could build bodies so well with such an obvious wealth
Of variation and , well
In DNA’s case it’s ‘cause it copies itself
And makes which would not really help
Except that one in every million is a slight improvement
And leaves more copies, whether mice or humans
And that’s what keeps this whole life thing movin’
Changing and growing and competing for mates
‘Cause that’s the only way to keep your DNA
Up in the race, which explains a lot
Like how animals and plants all behave in the wild
So next time you shake hands or break dance
Or make plans, don’t forget the straight facts
The information that makes your brains and hands
Comes from one place:

We are made of DNA
We are made of DNA
Deoxyribonucleic
Acid is what we are made of
We are made of DNA
We are made of DNA
Strands of double helix
Are where all these bodies came from

Yeah, this goes out to Watson and Crick
Who discovered the twist
And to the Human Genome Project
And to those who speed up the process
I mean like Digital PCR
Record a gene faster than a VCR
This is the future so you better get used to it
This is what we are

 Who discovered the structure of DNA and why exactly is it shaped as double helix? Delve into the world of science history with James Watson, Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin

How do we know for sure that genes are made from DNA and that DNA encodes (genetic) information? In the 1920s, experiments showed that a harmless strain of bacteria can become infectious when mixed with a virulent strain of bacteria that had been killed. The dead bacteria apparently provide some chemical that “transforms” the harmless bacteria to infectious ones. This so-called “transforming principle” appeared to be a gene. Find out more about the experiment they used here.