DNA - Blueprint or recipe?

I think that "recipe" is less likely to mislead, but both are only really good at a basic level. The difference I see it is that the blueprint is very focussed on the final product, while the recipe says very little about it.For a very simply, high-level view both are OK. Your DNA is the instructions on how to make you.Looking at a low level genes code for proteins. There is a direct relationship between the DNA sequence and the sequence of the protein produced from that DNA. For that, too, either analogy would work. (Even there, there are complications, though._But that's where it ends. You won't find a strong match between genes or groups of genes and the higher-level structure of your bodies. Rather it is in the interactions of the genes and the proteins - and their environment. Some genes control whether other genes are active or not, for instance. That is more like a recipe - the genes are more about what to do to get to the final product than what that product looks like.

Yes, they're true. Timing is very important in development.But I'd look for concrete examples in real recipes before going too far down that track.