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STEREO DNA double helix with 11 base pairs on white

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DNA double helix molecule (graphic) stereo view on white

DNA image #16: 11 base pairs coiled double helix STEREO PAIR (major groove view) on a white background; this image is 500 pixels across the original is 2540 x 1964 pixels. To see the stereo effect, please gaze at infinity at a point between the two molecules. You should eventually see three images. The middle image will be a combination of the left and right images and it should look solid (stereo or 3d). The effect can sometimes be improved by holding a sheet of paper or card perpendicular to the image so that your left eye only sees the left image and your right eye only sees the right image. To focus, move your head closer to or further from the image. It might take a few tries to achieve the effect.


DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid is very complex molecule that stores genetic information in a sequence of base pairs that span the double helix like the rungs of a twisted ladder. In DNA, there are four different types of base and these link together in a strict fashion: guanine pairs with cytosine and thymine pairs with adenine. Because of this defined one to one linkage, each chain carries the same information but coded in complementary bases.

The double helical molecule is about 2.4 nm across (2.4 nanometers or 2.4 x 10-9 meters) and comprises two strands. Each strand is a regular sugar-phosphate-sugar chain with bases projecting from it. The two strands run in opposite directions (referred to as being antiparallel) and each is coiled as a right handed helix. The helix undergoes one complete turn about every ten base pairs (10 bps), which is equivalent to a rise of 3.4 nm up the helical axis (i.e. the helix has a period of 3.4 nm).

The unit molecule of DNA is called a nucleotide and consists of a single sugar-phosphate-base unit. These nucleotides are then strung together to make the chains (polynucleotides) that wrap around each other.

The genetic information for an entire organism is called the genome. The full sequences of genomes have been studied for several organisms, most famously humans in the human genome project. Genes are the inheritance units in the genome and each gene codes for the production of a particular molecule.

The double helical structure of DNA was elucidated over 50 years ago by James Watson and Francis Crick and published in a 1953 letter in NATURE. For this, they shared a Nobel Prize in 1962 with Maurice Wilkins (who, with Rosalind Franklin, furnished the X-Ray diffraction data).

After reading this page, why not try our GENETICS QUIZ? If you like DNA images we have PLENTY OF DNA GIFTS FEATURING RKM IMAGES

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