Length of a Human DNA

Length of a Human DNA :

Bibliographic Entry
Result(w/surrounding text)
StandardizedResult
Mitchel, Campbell Reece. Biology Concept and Connections. California, 1997.
"At actual size, a human cell's DNA totals about 3 meters in length."
3.0 m
McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. New York: McGraw Hill, 1997.
"If stretched out, would form very thin thread, about 6 feet (2 meters) long."
2.0 m
Matthews, Harry R. DNA Structure Prerequisite Information. 1997.
"The length is (length of 1 bp)(number of bp per cell) which is (0.34 nm)(6 × 109)"
2.0 m
Leltninger, Albert L. Biochemistry. New York: Worth, 1975.
"Chromosome 13 contains a DNA molecule about 3.2 cm long."
1.5 m
"Cell." The World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: Field Enterprises, 1996.
"On the average, a single human chromosome consists of DNA molecule that is about 2 inches long."
2.3 m
The chromosomes in the nucleus of a cell contain all the information a cell needs to carry on its life processes. They are made up of a complex chemical (a nucleic acid) called deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA for short. Scientist's decoding of the chemical structure of DNA has led to a simple conceptual understanding of genetic processes. DNA is the hereditary material of all cells. It is a double-stranded helical macromolecule consisting of nucleotide monomers with deoxyribose sugar and the nitrogenous bases adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). In the chromosomes of a cell, DNA occurs as fine, spirally coiled threads that in turn coils around another, like a twisted ladder.

The DNA molecule is threaded so fine that it is only possible to see it under high powerful electron microscopes. To get a sense of exactly how long an uncoiled DNA molecule is compared to a typical cell, a cell is magnified 1000 times. At this scale, the total length of all the DNA in the cell's nucleus would be 3 km -- the equivalent distance of the Lincoln Memorial to the capital in Washington, DC.
The human genome comprises the information contained in one set of human chromosomes which themselves contain about 3 billion base pairs (bp) of DNA in 46 chromosomes (22 autosome pairs + 2 sex chromosomes). The total length of DNA present in one adult human is calculated by the multiplication of
(length of 1 bp)(number of bp per cell)(number of cells in the body)
(0.34 × 10-9 m)(6 × 109)(1013)
2.0 × 1013 meters

That is the equivalent of nearly 70 trips from the earth to the sun and back.
2.0 × 1013 meters = 133.691627 astronomical units133.691627 / 2 = 66.8458135 round trips to the sun
On the average, a single human chromosome consists of DNA Molecule that is almost 5 centimeters.
Steven Chen -- 1998
Bibliographic Entry
Result(w/surrounding text)
StandardizedResult
WNET-DT 13.1, 5:00 PM 10 May 2006.
"Unravel your DNA and it would stretch from here to the moon"
3.85 × 108 m

HUMANDNA

DNA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For a non-technical introduction to the topic, see Introduction to genetics.
For other uses, see DNA (disambiguation).

The structure of part of a DNA double helix
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information. DNA is often compared to a set of blueprints or a recipe, or a code, since it contains the instructions needed to construct other components of cells, such as proteins and RNA molecules. The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in regulating the use of this genetic information.

Chemically, DNA consists of two long polymers of simple units called nucleotides, with backbones made of sugars and phosphate groups joined by ester bonds. These two strands run in opposite directions to each other and are therefore anti-parallel. Attached to each sugar is one of four types of molecules called bases. It is the sequence of these four bases along the backbone that encodes information. This information is read using the genetic code, which specifies the sequence of the amino acids within proteins. The code is read by copying stretches of DNA into the related nucleic acid RNA, in a process called transcription.

Within cells, DNA is organized into X-shaped structures called chromosomes. These chromosomes are duplicated before cells divide, in a process called DNA replication. Eukaryotic organisms (animals, plants, fungi, and protists) store most of their DNA inside the cell nucleus and some of their DNA in the mitochondria (animals and plants) and chloroplasts (plants only)[1]. Prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) however, store their DNA in the cell's cytoplasm. Within the chromosomes, chromatin proteins such as histones compact and organize DNA. These compact structures guide the interactions between DNA and other proteins, helping control which parts of the DNA are transcribed.

Hill

A Hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain, in a limited area. Hills often have a distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of scarp slope without a well-defined summit (e.g. Box Hill). A hillock is a small hill.

Terminology:
The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is generally somewhat lower and less steep than a mountain. In the United Kingdom geographers historically regarded mountains as hills greater than, 1000 feet (300 m) above sea level, which formed the basis of the plot of the 1995 film The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.

In contrast, hillwalkers have tended to regard mountains as peeks 200 feet (610 m) above sea level. The Oxford English Dictionary also suggests a limit of 2000 feet (610 m).

Historical Significance

Hills have played an important role in history.
Many settlements were originally built on hills, either to avoid or curb floods, particularly if they were near a large body of water, or for defence, since they offer a good view of the surrounding land and require would-be attackers to fight uphill. For example, Ancient Rome was built on seven hills, protecting it from invaders.

In northern Europe, many ancient monuments are sited on hills. Some of these are defensive structures (such as the hill-forts of the Iron Age), but others appear to have had a religious significance. In Britain, many churches at the tops of hills are thought to have been built on the sites of earlier pagan holy places. The National Cathedral in Washington, DC has followed this tradition and was built on the highest hill in that city.

Hill of the Judean Desert

Judea is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel, an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank (itself partly under Palestinian Authority administration and Israeli military rule).

The name Judea is a Greek and Roman adaption of the name “Judah”, which originally encompassed the territory of the Israelite trine of that name and later of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. The area was the site of the Hasmonean Kingdom and the later Kingdom of Judah, a client Kingdom of the Roman Empire.

Ant Hills

An ant-hill, in its simplest form, is a pile of earth, sand, pine needles, or clay or a composite of these and other materials that build up at the entrances of the subterranean dwellings of ant colonies as they are excavated. A colony is built and maintained by legions of worker ants, who carry tiny bits of dirty and/or vegetarian in their mandibles and deposit them near the exit of the colony.

They normally deposit the dirt or vegetation at the top of the hill to prevent it from sliding back into the colony, but in some species they actively sculpt the materials into specific shapes, and may create nest chambers within the mound.

Battle of Bunker Hill

The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775 on Breed’s Hill, during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War. Because most of the fighting did not occur on Bunker Hill itself, the conflict is sometimes more accurately (thought less frequently) called the Battle of Breed’s Hill.

On June 13, the leaders of the besieging colonial forces learned that the British generals in Boston were planning to occupy the unoccupied hills around Boston. In response to this intelligence, 1200 colonial troops under the command of William Prescott stealthily occupied Bunker Hill and Breed’s Hill, constructed an earthen redoubt on Breed’s Hill, and built lightly fortified lines across most of the Charlestown Peninsula.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, also known as the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis, near present-day Al Hillah, Babil in Iraq, is considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the world. They were built by the Chaldean king Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BCE.


He is reported to have constructed the gardens to please his sick wife, Amytis of Media, who longed for the trees and fragrant plants of her homeland Persia. The gardens were destroyed by several earthquakes after the 2nd century BCE.


The Iush Hanging Gardens are extensively documented by Greek historians such as Strabo and Diodorus Siculus. Through the ages, the location may have been confused with gardens that existed at Nimrud, since tablets from there clearly show gardens.

Statue of Zeus at Olympia

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was made by the Greek sculptor of the Classical period, Phidias, circa 432 BCE on the site where it was erected in the temple of Zeus, Olympia, Greece.


Phidias’ workshop rediscoverd
Perhaps the greatest discovery came in 1954-58 with the excavation of the workshop at Olympia where Phidias created the statue. Tools, terracotta molds and a cup inscribed “I belong to Pheidias” were found here, where the traveler Pausanius said the Zeus was constructed. This has enabled archaeologists to re-create the techniques used to make the great work and confirm its date.

Temple of Artemis

The Temple of Artemis, also known less precisely as Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to Artemis completed – in its most famous phase – around 550 BCE at Ephesus (in present-day Turkey). Only foundations and sculptural fragments of the temple remain, the monument being one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. There were previous temples on its site, where evidence of a sanctuary dates as early as the Bronze Age.


I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saws the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, “Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand.

Mausoleum of Mausolus

The Tomb of Mausolus, Mausoleum of Mausolus or Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (in Greek, was a tomb built between 353 and 360 BC at Halicarnassus for Mausolus, a satrap in the Persian Empire, and Artemisia II of Caria, his wife and sister. The structure was designed by the Greek architects Satyros and Pythis.

It stood approximately 45 meters (135 ft) in height, and each of the four sides was adorned with sculptural reliefs created by each one of four Greek sculptors – Leochares, Bryaxis, Scopas of Paros and Timotheus. The finished structure was considered to be such as aesthetic triumph that Antipater of Sidon identified it as one of his Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Lighthouse of Alexandria (or The Pharos of Alexandria) was a tower built in the 3rd century BC (between 285 and 247 BC) on the island of Pharos in Alexandria, Egypt to serve as that port's landmark, and later, its lighthouse.

With a height variously estimated at between 115 and 135 m (380 and 440 ft) it was identified as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Antipater of Sidon. It may have been the third tallest building after the two Great Pyramids (of Khufu and Khafra) for its entire life.

Wild Animals

Wild animals are often kept as pets. The term wild in this context specifically applies to any species of animal which has not undergone a fundamental change in behavior to facilitate a close co-existence with humans.

Some species listed here may have been bred in captivity for a considerable length of time, but are still not recognized as domesticated. Many of these pets, like insects and fish, are kept as a hobby, rather than for companionship.

Lion

The lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg (550 lb) in weight, it is the second largest living cat after the tiger. Wild lions currently exist in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia with a critically endangered remnant population in northwest India, having disappeared from North Africa, the Middle East, and Western Asia in historic times.

Until the late Pleistocene, which was about 10,000 years ago, the lion was the most widespread large land mammal after humans. They were found in most of Africa, much of Eurasia from western Europe to India, and in the Americans from the Yukon to Peru.

Lions lives for around 10-14 years in the wild, while in captivity they can live over 20 years. In the wild, males seldom live longer than ten years as fights with rivals occasionally cause injuries. Lions have been kept in menageries since Roman times and have been a key species sought for exhibition in zoos the world over since the late eighteenth century. Zoos are cooperating worldwide in breeding programs for the endangered Asiatic subspecies.

Leopard

The leopard is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four “big cats” in the genus Panthera; the other three are the tiger, lion and jaguar. Once distributed across southern Asia and Africa, from Korea to South Africa, the leopard’s range of distribution has decreased radically over time due to hunting and loss of habitat, and the leopard now chiefly occurs in sub-Saharan Africa.

The species' success in the wild owes in part to its opportunistic hunting behaviour, its adaptability to a variety of habitats and its ability to move at up to approximately 58 kilometres (36 miles) an hour.

The leopard consumes virtually any animal it can hunt down and catch. Its preferred habitat ranges from rainforest to desert terrains. Its ecological role and status resembles that of the similarly-sized cougar in the Americas.

Birds

Birds are winged, bipedal, endothermic, vertebrate animals that lay eggs. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

Birds range in size from the 5 cm (2 in) Bee Hummingbird to the 2.7 m (8 ft 10 in) Ostrich. The fossil record indicates that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic period, around 150-200 Ma (million years ago), and the earliest known bird is the only clade of dinosaurs that survived the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event approximately 65.5 Ma.

Many species are of economic importance, mostly as sources of food acquired through hunting or farming. Some species, particularly songbirds and parrots, are popular as pets.

Ostrich

The Ostrich, Struthio camelus, is a large flightless bird native to Africa (and formerly the Middle East). It is the only living species of its family, Struthionidae, and its genus, Struthio. Ostriches is distinctive in its appearance, with a long neck and legs and the ability to run at maximum speeds of about 45mph. The Ostrich is the largest living species of bird and lays the largest egg of any bird species.

The diet of the Ostrich mainly consists of plant matter, though it also eats insects. It lives in nomadic groups which contain between five and 50 birds. When threatened, the Ostrich will either hide itself by lying flat against the ground, or will run away. If cornered, it can cause injury and death with a kick from its powerful legs. Mating patterns differ by geographical region, but territorial males fight for a harem of two to seven females.

The Ostrich is farmed around the world, particularly for its feathers, which are decorative and are also used for feather dusters. Its skin is used for leather and its meat marketed commercially.

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants disseminate seeds, and the presence of seeds indicates that a structure is most likely a fruit, though not all seeds come from fruits.

No single terminology really fits the enormous variety that is found among plant fruits. The term 'false fruit' (pseudocarp, accessory fruit) is sometimes applied to a fruit like the fig (a multiple-accessory fruit; see below) or to a plant structure that resembles a fruit but is not derived from a flower or flowers.

Some gymnosperms, such as yew, have fleshy arils that resemble fruits and some junipers have berry-like, fleshy cones. The term "fruit" has also been inaccurately applied to the seed-containing female cones of many conifers.

Fruit Development

A fruit is a ripened ovary. Inside the ovary is one or more ovules where the megagametophyte contains the mega gamete or egg cell. The ovules are fertilized in a process that starts with pollination, which involves the movement of pollen from the stamens to the stigma of flowers. After pollination, a tube grows from the pollen through the stigma into the ovary to the ovule and sperm are transferred from the pollen to the ovule, within the ovule the sperm unites with the egg, forming a diploid zygote.

Fruits are so diverse that it is difficult to devise a classification scheme that includes all known fruits. Many common terms for seeds and fruit are incorrectly applied, a fact that complicates understanding of the terminology.

Seeds are ripened ovules; fruits are the ripened ovaries or carpels that contain the seeds. To these two basic definitions can be added the clarification that in botanical terminology, a nut is not a type of fruit and not another term for seed, on the contrary to common terminology.

Simple fruit
Aggregate fruit
Multiple fruit

Seedless Fruits

Seedlessness is an important feature of some fruits of commerce. Commercial cultivars of bananas and pineapples are examples of seedless fruits. Some cultivars of citrus fruits (especially navel oranges), satsumas, mandarine oranges table grapes, grapefruit, and watermelons are valued for their seedlessness. In some species, seedlessness is the result of parthenocarpy, where fruits set without fertilization. Parthenocarpic fruit set may or may not require pollination.

Most seedless citrus fruits require a pollination stimulus; bananas and pineapples do not. Seedlessness in table grapes results from the abortion of the embryonic plant that is produced by fertilization, a phenomenon known as stenospermocarpy which requires normal pollination and fertilization

Non Food Uses

Because fruits have been such a major part of the human diet, different cultures have developed many different uses for various fruits that they do not depend on as being edible. Many dry fruits are used as decorations or in dried flower arrangements, such as unicorn plant, lotus, wheat, annual honesty and milkweed. Ornamental trees and shrubs are often cultivated for their colorful fruits, including holly, pyracantha, viburnum, skimmia, beautyberry and cotoneaster.

Fruits of opium poppy are the source of opium which contains the drugs morphine and codeine, as well as the biologically inactive chemical theabaine from which the drug oxycodone is synthysized. Osage orange fruits are used to repel cockroaches. Bayberry fruits provide a wax often used to make candles. Many fruits provide ntural dyes, e.g. walnut, sumac, cherry and mulberry. Dried gourds are used as decorations, water jugs, bird houses, musical instruments, cups and dishes. Pumpkins are carved into Jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween. The spiny fruit of burdock or cocklebur were the inspiration for the invention of Velcro.

Coir is a fibre from the fruit of coconut that is used for doormats, brushes, mattresses, floortiles, sacking, insulation and as a growing medium for container plants. The shell of the coconut fruit is used to make souvenir heads, cups, bowls, musical instruments and bird houses. Fruit is often also used as a subject of still life paintings.

Nutritional Value

Fruits are generally high in fiber, water and Vitamin C. Fruits also contain various phytochemicals that do not yet have an RDA/RDI listing under most nutritional factsheets, and which research indicates are required for proper long-term cellular health and disease prevention. Regular consumption of fruit is associated with reduced risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, Alzheimer disease, cataracts, and some of the functional declines associated with aging.

Nobel Prize for Literature (1913)

Tagore was born and lived in Calcutta for most of his life. He was one of modern India’s greatest poets and the composer of independent India’s national anthem. In 1901 he founded his school, the Santiniketan, at Bolpur as a protest against the existing bad system of education. The school was a great success and gave birth to Viswabharati.

He was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature for his work “Gitanjali”; for the English version, published in 1912. The noble citation stated that it was “because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic though, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West.”

In 1915, he was knighted by the British King George V. Tagore renounced his knighthood in 1919 following the Amritsar massacre or nearly 400 Indian demonstrators.

Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology (1968)

Dr. Hargobind Khorana was born on 9th January 1922 at Rajpur, Punjab (now in Pakistan). Dr. Khorana was responsible for producing the first man-made gene in his laboratory in the early seventies.

This historic invention won him the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1968 sharing it with Marshall Nuremberg and Robert Holley for interpreting the genetic code and analyzing its function in protein synthesis. They all independently made contributions to the understanding of the genetic code and how it works in the cell.

They established that this mother of all codes, the biological language common to all living organisms, is spelled out in three-letter words: each set of three nucleotides codes for a specific amino acid.

Nobel Prize for Physics (1983)

Subramaniam Chandrashekhar was born on October 19, 1910 in Lahore, India (later part of Pakistan). He attended Presidency College from 1925 to 1930, following in the footsteps of his famous uncle, Sir C. V. Raman.

His work spanned over the understanding of the rotation of planets, stars, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, galaxies and clusters of galaxies. He won the Nobel Prize in 1983 for his theoretical work on stars and their evolution.

Nobel Prize for Peace (1979)

Mother Teresa was born in 1910, Skoplje, Yugoslavia (then Turkey) and originally named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, Mother Teresa dedicated her life to helping the poor, the stick, and the dying around the world, particularly those in India, working through the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta.

The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees.

The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless, and AIDS sufferers. Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997.

Nobel Prize for Economics (1998)

Dr. Amartya Sen was born in 1933. Bolpur, in West Bengal, Amartya sen is the latest in our list of Nobel Laureates. He was honoured with the Nobel Prize for his work in Welfare economics.

When Thailand’s Baht plummeted, markets from Bombay to New York were in turmoil and there was talk of worldwide depression, Sen’s argument that growth should be accompanied by democratic decision-making seemed only too correct.

A new brand of softer, gentler economics seemed in order. Although Sen is probably best known for his research on famines, his work on women – the attention he has drawn to their unequal status in the developing world, and his calls for gender-specific aid programs – is just as important.