Scale: 10-9 meters = 1 nm = 1 nanometer

The Structure of DNA

This is a representation of a portion of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA. The atom in the center square is carbon, an essential building block for all life on Earth. Carbon bonds to other atoms in a number of different ways allowing for the formation of a multitude of molecules. DNA is a carbon-based molecule that forms a double helix -- a spiral ladder. The rungs of the ladder are composed of pairs of complimentary bases. Each base is attached to a sugar. The sugars are connected to each other along the rail of the ladder by phosphates. This image shows a very small piece of DNA -- about a third of one complete spiral. The length of a single coil of DNA is about 3 nm.


Copyright © 2016 by Bruce Bryson