Chapter 13 Meiosis One of the characteristics of life is that organisms reproduce their own kind Exceptions to this rule only show up as tabloid rumors Offspring generally resemble their parents in some form Heredity-transfer of traits from parent to offspring But there is variation We will look at how chromosomes pass from parent to offspring Parents give offspring coded information in units called genes It is our link to our parents The genetic program is written in the language of DNA-4 bases It is symbolic DNA programs the cell to translate the information Ex: when we read the word apple, we see the fruit Cells do the same thing except in the form of a code that might mean freckles, blue eyes, brown hair