A Biologist's Mother's Day Song

I love you, mom

Much to my surprise, some people have requested the mp3--now you can get it here:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/cadamole (it's the first song)
or on iTunes, just search cadamole

Lyrics:
To make one me you just add
Half of mom and half of dad
That is what I once believed
But I know now that I was wrong
I got so much more from you mom
Than just half a set of genes
I got nutrients and transcription factors
and nearly everything that matters
plus my prenatal environment (transplacental inheritance)
mRNA, mitochondria,
That back in the day once belonged to ya (theyre cytoplasmic)
and I just want to thank for supplying them

Just like two strands of DNA are spirally entwined
Your nature and your nurture are inspiringly combined
Scientists remind me and I find that it is true
Slightly more than half of everything I am is thanks to you

Mitochondria power my cells
and they have DNA as well
Transcription factors modulate transcription
And since theyre in the cytoplasm
The eggs the only one that has em
and sperm I guess they dont have much ambition

My sex determination gene means that Im a guy
From you I got my X chromosome, from Dad I got my Y
X has over a thousand genes, Y has less than 92
Thats why more than half of everything I am is thanks to you

I roomed in your womb for nine whole months and never paid the rent
Your glucocorticoids shaped my hypothalmic development
I took in your blood and sucked it dry of every nutrient (its gross but true)
Sometimes I wonder where the time went (where did it go)
Sometimes I wonder where it went

I know Ill never understand all you have done for me (Im not that smart)
But since you paid for college Ill get my B. S. degree (bachelor of science)
And I have learned its not BS but absolutely true
Slightly more than half of everything I am is thanks to you.

"It's not an even 50/50 split you get a disproportionate share of your DNA coming from your mom. Really important." - Robert Sapolsky
v
CHORDS
Verse: D A G G
Chorus: A bm G D x2 / G A D-A-bm / G A G D
Bridge: G A D G x2 / G A D-A-bm / G G A A -- rock on!

• Category

  Music

[Daniela Arrocena]

Hi! Where can I get the lyrics? Love this song!

[cadamole]

Lyrics, chords, links - just click "show more" below the video.

[yumakami]

I'd like to perform this with my siblings for my mom on Mother's Day. You don't by chance have sheet music, do you? We'd like to try adding a bit of a band. I have a version I worked up by ear, but it would be nice to have a solid reference.

[cadamole]

I don't have sheet music, but the chords are at the bottom of the about bar

[78chaser]

My Professor was one proud mother when she told us it was her son singing. Cute :)

[cadamole]

hmmm . . . either my mother has secretly become a professor, or your professor has secretly become my mother.

[plattawabbe]

ANA301 shoutout yo

[Tanja7676]

Oh totally great! :) I am thankful to EDX's MOOC "The secret of life" for many things, and this is definitely one of them, I found there the link to your video in the section that speaks about mitochondrial DNA and how we get it only from the mom. You made my day! :)

[Ismaeel Abdur-Rasheed]

just awesome!

[hcoleman94]

accelerateddoctorschool.blogsp­ot.com/

[Ayman Al Jurdi]

It's cute!

[TheFallorn]

They should put an annotation option to just expand the "show more" when clicked on...

[Scott Joing]

really clever and creative, thanks for posting this.

[EiramLehcar1]

This is fantastic.

[honeydukes313]

If I ever have kids, they had better sing this to me.

[lucero100CE]

3 chord song lol

[Jude Adamson]

Sapolsky FTW!