Non-disjunction
Okay kiddo, so you know how your body has lots and lots of tiny little things inside of it called cells?
Well, inside each of those cells, there is something called chromosomes, and they are kind of like tiny little instruction books that tell your body how to grow and develop.
Usually, when one cell divides into two cells, the chromosomes split in half and each new cell gets half of the chromosomes. But sometimes, something called non-disjunction can happen.
Non-disjunction is when the chromosomes don't split in half like they are supposed to. So, one cell might end up with too many chromosomes while the other cell might end up with too few chromosomes.
This can cause some problems. For example, if a baby is developing and some of their cells have too many or too few chromosomes, they might not develop exactly right. This can cause things like Down syndrome.
It's kind of like if you were building a puzzle and some of the pieces got stuck together or went missing - it would be really hard to finish the puzzle correctly! That's kind of what happens when non-disjunction happens inside our cells.
But don't worry, your body has lots of ways to fix these kinds of mistakes and keep things running smoothly!
Well, inside each of those cells, there is something called chromosomes, and they are kind of like tiny little instruction books that tell your body how to grow and develop.
Usually, when one cell divides into two cells, the chromosomes split in half and each new cell gets half of the chromosomes. But sometimes, something called non-disjunction can happen.
Non-disjunction is when the chromosomes don't split in half like they are supposed to. So, one cell might end up with too many chromosomes while the other cell might end up with too few chromosomes.
This can cause some problems. For example, if a baby is developing and some of their cells have too many or too few chromosomes, they might not develop exactly right. This can cause things like Down syndrome.
It's kind of like if you were building a puzzle and some of the pieces got stuck together or went missing - it would be really hard to finish the puzzle correctly! That's kind of what happens when non-disjunction happens inside our cells.
But don't worry, your body has lots of ways to fix these kinds of mistakes and keep things running smoothly!