Length of DNA. Animation showing the length of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) compared to the human body and distances in space. DNA, found in cell nuclei, forms the genetic basis of nearly all living organisms. The animation zooms in on a human finger, extracting a strand of DNA from a single cell nucleus. The length of that strand is 2 metres when unravelled. The animation then successively adds together the DNA from a large number of cells (there are an estimated 15-70 trillion cells in the human body). The height of this column of DNA rises high into the atmosphere (thousands of cells), out into space (tens of millions of cells), and past the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the outer planets. The final part of the animation shows the Earth, Pluto and the Voyager 1 space probe on a scale reaching out to a distance of 300 astronomical units (AU), 300 times the Earth-Sun distance. The final figures given are 25 trillion cells, 50 trillion metres of DNA, and 300 AU. |