Pseudogenes

Okay kiddo, so you know how you have a whole bunch of toys in your room, but some of them are broken and you never play with them anymore? That's kind of like what a pseudogene is.

In your body, you have these things called genes that are like instructions for your body to make different things. Sometimes, there are genes that used to be important for your body to make something, but over time they became broken and don't work anymore. Those broken genes are called pseudogenes.

They are kind of like old toys that you used to play with, but now they don't work anymore and just take up space in your room. But even though they're broken, scientists can still learn a lot from studying them, just like you can learn about how toys work by taking them apart even if they're broken. And who knows, maybe someday scientists will find a way to fix those broken genes so they can start working again!