Heritability

Hello there! Today we are going to talk about heritability, but first, do you know what genes are? No? Genes are like a recipe book that tells your body what to do and how to do it.

Now, let's talk about heritability. It is a way of measuring how much of who you are is because of your genes. For example, if your mom and dad are both tall, it’s likely that you will be tall because you inherited tall genes from them. So, we can say that height has a high heritability.

But not everything about you is determined by your genes. Some things like how you talk and how you behave are also influenced by what you experience and learn throughout your life. So, things like personalities and intelligence have a lower heritability.

Scientists can use heritability to study how much genes contribute to certain traits. They do this by studying families and comparing how much of a trait is similar between family members. This helps them understand which traits are more likely determined by genes and which ones are influenced more by the environment.

So, heritability is just a way of understanding how much of your traits are influenced by your genes or your environment. It gives scientists a way to study why some things run in families and others don't.