the.com/gene

a recipe written in four letters, copied a billion times without proofreading.

means A gene is a unit of heredity made of DNA that carries the instructions for a particular trait or protein, passed from parent to offspring.

from From the Greek 'genos,' meaning birth, race, or kind — the same ancient root that fathered 'genesis,' 'generate,' and 'genetic.' The Danish botanist Wilhelm Johannsen coined 'gen' in the early 20th century, clipping it from Hugo de Vries's older term 'pangene.' He wanted a clean word for the mysterious thing that carried inheritance, long before anyone knew it was spelled out in DNA.

count: humans carry about 20,000, fewer than a grape
naming: some are named sonic hedgehog, after the videogame
hitchhikers: roughly 8 percent of your DNA is ancient virus
switches: genes turn on and off, not just present or absent
shared: you share half your genes with a banana

for instance

brca1 — breast cancer susceptibility gene discovered in 1994; mutations increase cancer risk by up to 87%

tp53 — tumor suppressor gene mutated in ~50% of human cancers; called 'guardian of the genome'

hemoglobin beta — gene on chromosome 11; single mutation causes sickle cell disease affecting millions in africa and middle east