 What makes you, you? Well, it's a dance. Between your genome, which you inherit, and all of the things that make up your environment. Let's start with your genome. Genome is just a fancy word for all your DNA. Your genome consists of six billion smaller molecules known by the letters A, C, T, and G. Some of these letters are organized into genes. We humans have about 20,000 genes. Your body reads these genes like bits of computer code, which contain instructions for how to create different parts. You inherit this code from your parents, and your grandparents, and your great-grandparents, tracing all the way back to the origin of the human species in Africa. 99.9% of the letters in our genome are identical in every single human being. But we're different because of changes in the code introduced over tens of thousands of years. Changes in the human genome appear all the time, even if we don't notice them for generations. Some changes affect your health, but most changes have no effect at all. But what makes you, you, is not simply your genome, it's also about your environment. Environment is all sorts of things, like where you live and whether it's clean or polluted. And whether you have people in your life who support and care about you. Environment is also about the choices you make, like what you eat, and whether you are a couch potato, or move around. Your genome might increase your risk of heart disease, but you can make healthy decisions to reduce those risks. So remember, DNA is not destiny. The dance between genome and environment follows your lead.