Question

1) Mildred and Floyd are neighbors and both are avid gardeners. Mildred uses fertilizer X and always tells Floyd that her garden produces more than his because of the fertilizer brand she uses. Floyd of course uses fertilizer Y and disagrees with Mildred and believes his fertilizer brand is the best. How would you see which fertilizer works best?

2)To the best of our knowledge, all living things use DNA as their genetic material. Most organisms even use the exact same genetic code for gene expression such that genes from one organism can be properly expressed in a completely different organism. What could explain this world-wide similarity that we see in all living things? Answer using only one or two sentences.