Google Answers DNA - Significance of the Double Helix

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted August 30, 2007 in DNA @ Google Answers

Google Questioner:

Is there any significance in it [DNA] being a double helix? Wouldn’t a 2 dimensional “ladder” be able to perform the same job of division and replication?

Google Answer:

…I direct your attention to James Watson’s textbook, “Molecular Biology of the Gene, Fifth Edition.” …Watson explains that the double helix structure results from the way that hydrogen bonds connect the base pairs of the each strand and because of how base pairs “stack” on top of each other. Moreover, the twisty double helix shape is essential for the stability of the DNA molecule.

BTW, play the Nobelprize.org Double Helix Game where “you can make copies of DNA molecules and find out which organism the genetic material belongs to!”

Tags: genetics, genes, dna, double helix, google answers

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2 Comments »

Comment by David Bradley

2007-08-30 17:09:52

DNA wasn’t originally a double helix at all, it had 12 strands, which we forgot about when we emerged reincarnated from Atlantis, at least according to Elisis Livingstone talking to Richard Dawkins in Enemies of Reason (part 2 here http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6004927014381716642

Apparently…

“We used to have, in Atlantis, twelve strands, in the form of four triangles facing in, in each cell, and we forgot who we were in the experiment after Atlantis and everything changed…” she says.

Incredible, I know…

db

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Comment by Hsien

2007-08-30 17:18:21

Huh?!? I need to get me some BELIEFS so I get to talk to Richard Dawkins.

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