, DNA
Genetic information is passed from one generation to the next.
This is called heredity and why we look like our parents. The genetic
information itself is contained in a complex molecule called DNA. Scientists
have worked out the structure in the 1950s.Rosalind Franklin made ‘X-ray
transmission’ images of DNA. James Watson and Francis Crick used
information from one of her images to work out a model for the structure
of DNA. Watson and Crick were able to work out how DNA was arranged
and the tiny distances between its different features. They worked out that
in a DNA molecule:
The DNA in all of your cells is approximately two metres long, except
red blood cells which have none and sperm or eggs which only have
about one metre. Because it is so long it is very thin too and it is coiled
into structures called the Chromosomes. The chromosomes are found
in the nucleus of each cell.
There are two strands
The strands are twisted around each other to
form a double helix
The strands are held together by bonds
between base pairs
Genetic information is passed from one generation to the next.
This is called heredity and why we look like our parents. The genetic
information itself is contained in a complex molecule called DNA. Scientists
have worked out the structure in the 1950s.Rosalind Franklin made ‘X-ray
transmission’ images of DNA. James Watson and Francis Crick used
information from one of her images to work out a model for the structure
of DNA. Watson and Crick were able to work out how DNA was arranged
and the tiny distances between its different features. They worked out that
in a DNA molecule:
The DNA in all of your cells is approximately two metres long, except
red blood cells which have none and sperm or eggs which only have
about one metre. Because it is so long it is very thin too and it is coiled
into structures called the Chromosomes. The chromosomes are found
in the nucleus of each cell.
There are two strands
The strands are twisted around each other to
form a double helix
The strands are held together by bonds
between base pairs
