DNA is directly photographed for the first time

This is really cool!! A real picture of DNA through an Electron Microscope !! I wonder what else will be coming our way!

Check this out: DNA's double-helix structure is on display for the first time in this electron microscope photograph of a small bundle of DNA strands.


link: www.msnbc.msn.com...

Di Fabrizio thinks that snapshots of individual double helices will soon be possible

Very cool! It looks different than how it's usually depicted. Instead of a twisting ladder it looks more like a compressed slinky or even a hair follicle.

Very cool find.

That's pretty damn impressive. What is it like 3nm(nanometers) wide? I should know, I just had a pretty in-depth exam over DNA today. I think I aced it lol didn't need to memorize the width though.

I looked it up, it's 2.37 nm wide.

Originally posted by BASSPLYR
Very cool! It looks different than how it's usually depicted. Instead of a twisting ladder it looks more like a compressed slinky or even a hair follicle.

Very cool find.

I think a lot of that is just the "fuzz" around the DNA. If you look closely you will see darker thin lines that probably would look closer to the classical depictions if the atomic haze around it wasn't there. Although I think it will not be identical to it, still not as bad as I initially though when I first looked at the picture.

reply to post by boncho


Yea it's a grainy picture.. I mean who could expect it any different? resolution is a problem..

It said later they would be able to get a single double helix.. This means we are not looking at a double helix.. We are looking at double helixes all stacked together..

I'm in shock that we can see that much even..

If you zoom in far enough eventually you will find nothing... hehehehe

the article doesn't say how many strands we see there, just that's more than one pair.. More than 2 strands.

AMAZING !!
Looks like the development of the macro function has taken a giant leap
Time to get a new camera

Kind of looks like an old pipe cleaner that my grandpa had. Reoccurring shapes in nature I have a small brush that looks like that also, for cleaning out tiny channels and thread holes. It doesn't look anything like the pictures that are in the textbooks, it looks much more complex. Very good find there OP, I like interesting stuff like this.

Great to actually "see" DNA as most images are just computer generated.

reply to post by RUFFREADY


DNA was first photographed in 1952.

en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by alldaylong
reply to post by RUFFREADY

 

DNA was first photographed in 1952.

en.wikipedia.org...

and that's why you don't use Wikipedia as a source.....

what was done back then wasn't a direct photograph.

Originally posted by Ghost375

Originally posted by alldaylong
reply to post by RUFFREADY

 

DNA was first photographed in 1952.

en.wikipedia.org...

and that's why you don't use Wikipedia as a source.....

what was done back then wasn't a direct photograph.

If your not happy with Wikipedia then try this:-

www.accessexcellence.org...

When is a photograph not a photograph then?

Just as the electron microscope changed everything, and prior to that it was simply optical, I'd imagine technology will give us an even more powerful vehicle for observation and optical enlargement.

reply to post by rickymouse


I was going to say, looks like a mascara brush.

Originally posted by alldaylong

Originally posted by Ghost375

Originally posted by alldaylong
reply to post by RUFFREADY

 

DNA was first photographed in 1952.

en.wikipedia.org...

and that's why you don't use Wikipedia as a source.....

what was done back then wasn't a direct photograph.

If your not happy with Wikipedia then try this:-

www.accessexcellence.org...

When is a photograph not a photograph then?

when it's a X-ray diffraction photo
here it is I believe..