Genetics is the study of heredity and variations. Heredity and variations are controlled by genes—what they are, what they do, and how they work. Genes inside the nucleus of a cell are strung together in such a way that the sequence carries information: that information determines how living organisms inherit various features (phenotypic traits). For example, offspringproduced by sexual reproduction usually look similar to each of their parents because they have inherited some of each of their parents' genes. Genetics identifies which features are inherited, and explains how these features pass from generation to generation. In addition to inheritance, genetics studies how genes are turned on and off to control what substances are made in a cell—gene expression; and how a cell divides—mitosis or meiosis.
Some phenotypic traits can be seen, such as eye color while others can only be detected, such as blood type or intelligence. Traits determined by genes can be modified by the animal's surroundings (environment): for example, the general design of a tiger's stripes is inherited, but the specific stripe pattern is determined by the tiger's surroundings. Another example is a person's height: it is determined by both genetics and nutrition.
Chromosomes are tiny packages which contain one DNA molecule and its associated proteins. Humans have 46 chromosomes (23 pairs). This number varies between species—for example, many primates have 24 pairs. Meiosis creates special cells, sperm in males and eggs in females, which only have 23 chromosomes. These two cells merge into one during the fertilization stage of sexual reproduction, creating a zygote. In a zygote, a nucleic acid double helix divides, with each single helix occupying one of the daughter cells, resulting in half the normal number of genes. By the time the zygote divides again, genetic recombination has created a new embryo with 23 pairs of chromosomes, half from each parent. Mating and resultant mate choice result in sexual selection. In normal cell division (mitosis) is possible when the double helix separates, and a complement of each separated half is made, resulting in two identical double helices in one cell, with each occupying one of the two new daughter cells created when the cell divides.
Chromosomes all contain DNA made up of four nucleotides, abbreviated C (cytosine), G (guanine), A (adenine), or T (thymine), which line up in a particular sequence and make a long string. There are two strings of nucleotides coiled around one another in each chromosome: a double helix. C on one string is always opposite from G on the other string; A is always opposite T. There are about 3.2 billion nucleotide pairs on all the human chromosomes: this is the human genome. The order of the nucleotides carries genetic information, whose rules are defined by the genetic code, similar to how the order of letters on a page of text carries information. Three nucleotides in a row—a triplet—carry one unit of information: a codon.
The genetic code not only controls inheritance: it also controls gene expression, which occurs when a portion of the double helix is uncoiled, exposing a series of the nucleotides, which are within the interior of the DNA. This series of exposed triplets (codons) carries the information to allow machinery in the cell to "read" the codons on the exposed DNA, which results in the making of RNA molecules. RNA in turn makes either amino acids or microRNA, which are responsible for all of the structure and function of a living organism; i.e. they determine all the features of the cell and thus the entire individual. Closing the uncoiled segment turns off the gene.
Firstly, around the time of the French revolution brought about the very first Restaurants. Initially from memory a restaurant was a dish, like a soup or consomme which was used as a restorative for patrons who were feeling 'weak'. What differentiated these places from other Inn's and places where one could buy food was that it was they were the first places to offer choices of what one could eat. They were also places where one could essentially be 'seen' in public but still dine in a 'private' space (ie you didn't have to share tables with strangers as was the case in Inn's and the like. In fact some of these restaurants had private rooms as they still do). Many of the chefs in these early restaurants were previous employed by the French aristocracy. As the royals were now spending much of their time either running away from France or getting their heads chopped off, these chefs were now unemployed. Many of them opened restaurants as a means of keeping employed, the difference being that now in a France where there was indeed 'power to the people', many of these people were now enjoying haute cuisine that was previously only ever enjoyed by those of noble origin. As part of this we also got the first celebrity chefs and food writers who celebrated food in ways not often done before. One could argue that Archestratus was the first food and travel writer and that there were other chefs too before this time who were held in high esteem but during this time we got Careme (chef), Grimod de la Reyniere and Brillat Savarin (writers) who were all in their own right much like the celebrity chefs and food writers that we have today (Does anyone reading this think Steingarten is a bit like a modern day Brillat-Savarin?). Another one to look at is Escoffier who perhaps was the ultimate celebrity chef and cooked the greatest food for the rich and wealthy all over Europe. What he also developed though was a highly codified and rigid standard for cooking that was exceptionally well documented. All this information here is very much in short hand and written from memory. It probably excludes a lot of very important people and dates and times and so forth. I think though that the reason why it was so important is partly one of timing. So the French revolution happened and we got restaurants and celeb chefs and food writers. During and after this time, we also got the British colonizing half of the world, the development of the USA and the Industrial revolution. So when big hotels opened up in big cities the world over, the French way of cooling in restaurants was a great model to use and a relatively recently developed and highly popular phenomenon. The French restaurant brigade was a good way to run a high class food outlet that needed to cater to the different needs of well-heeled clientele. The French it seems were the ones who it seems venerated their chefs the most at this time. I once heard Giorgio Locatelli say that the difference between French and Italian food was that French food was all about the chef whereas Italian food was all about the ingredients. If this is true then if you wanted to open the best restaurant for your hotel, you needed both the best chefs and best ingredients. I suspect the French chefs were the ones of yelled the loudest!!
