" For people to get the traits encoded in their genes, the genes need to be turned on. You can think of a gene as a recipe. A recipe in a cookbook does you no good until you open the book, get the ingredients and follow the instructions."

"The same is true with our genes. In our analogy, the gene is the recipe and the cookbook is the chromosome (a large collection of recipes). The gene needs to be "read" by the cell in order for it to do what it should. An unread brown or black hair recipe will give you blonde hair. "