Hi,
If you unwind a strain of dna it would be thousands of miles long right?
So, to create something this complex, it would have to start small, and then, thrue evolution, get longer and more complex, like a program rewriting itself and adding bits of code thrue chance.

So, is it still growing? It just seems to be stuck at 23 chromosones.

Might be a silly question but i've never had much biology classes.

Originally posted by Morrel
So, to create something this complex, it would have to start small, and then, thrue evolution, get longer and more complex, like a program rewriting itself and adding bits of code thrue chance.

Yes, and it is also possible to get duplication or deletion events, where large chunks is added/removed, so it is not just 'one base at a time'. Just look at Adders-tongue, which has been through quite a few duplication events of its genome, and is now sitting at around 1200 chromosomes.

So, is it still growing? It just seems to be stuck at 23 chromosones.

There are plenty of examples of human diseases where you have more or less than 23 chromosomes.

Might be a silly question but i've never had much biology classes.

Seeking knowledge with an open mind is a good thing.

The reason we have 23 chromosomes though is that we have two that have been somehow fused together - we originally had 24 (same as the apes).
I do not believe that this has happened in any other species and is a cause for much debate amongst the boffins as to whether this has happened naturally or whether we received some assistance from ET's.

The average length of the DNA in a single human nucleus is about 1 meter.

A single DNA base is 0.34 nm in length. Assuming you have 3.0 x 10^9 bases per nucleus, we get:

3.0 x 10^9 bases x 0.34 nm/1 base x 1 m/1.0 x 10^9 nm = 1.02 m