Cells

So we are driving home and we are listening to They Might be Giants, 'Science is Real', and this song comes on:

Life is made out of cells
Cells make copies of themselves (copies of themselves)
And they make copies of themselves (and they make copies of themselves)
And they make copies of themselves

"MOMMY," yells Abigail (we like to rock out to these songs a bit... if you know They Might Be Giants, you would understand, but not to worry, I don't do any harm to my children's ears...). "MOMMY," she yells again, and I turn down the music, slightly...

Different cells have different jobs
But they all have one thing in common
Inside of every cell is a twisted ladder
A recipe for life called DNA
The directions are written out in the ladder's rungs
Where they can be found
In every cell of everything that lives

"Is this song real? Does that really happen?"

A cell knows what it has to do
To grow into some moss or a shrew
Algae or a kangaroo
Bug or a sunflower
Dwight David Eisenhower
A frog, a fish or you
Cells are small, too small to see
But together they can make a tree

"Yes," I answered, "this song is real and this is all true."

Within the cell there's a tiny spiral staircase
That tells the cell just how it's going to grow
The instructions are spelled out in letters
One on every step
In a language that the cell knows how to read

That was all she said. She listened to the rest of the song.

Inside the cell is a tiny double helix
Another fancy word for DNA
Which could also be a spiral staircase
Which could also be a twisted ladder
Which could also be a spring

Which could also be a spiral staircase
Which could also be a twisted ladder
Or a crazy looking spring*

And I wonder... what the five year-old mind is doing with THIS information.

(Shameless advertisement: If you aren't familiar with They Might Be Giants, I highly suggest you become so...)

*Copyright, They Might Be Giants, 2009.