Corny. Definitely.

Corny enough to make me pause before offering it…

But aw, shucks (you’ve got to laugh):

There’s real biology here for Mother’s Day :-)

(Bonus video at the end of the post.)

Footnotes [details lifted from the YouTube site]:

The artist has put up an MP3 because viewers asked for it.

Lyrics [missing apostrophe’s added]:

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 (they’re 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 they’re 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 (it’s gross but true)

Sometimes I wonder where the time went (where did it go)

Sometimes I wonder where it went

I know I’ll never understand all you have done for me (Im not that smart)

But since you paid for college I’ll 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.

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!

If you need a beer with that, there’s also his St. Patrick’s Day song: