Goodreads helps you follow your favorite authors. Be the first to learn about new releases!
Start by following Drew N. Kelner, Ph.D..
Showing 1-1 of 1
“AUTHOR'S NOTE: THIS IS TRUE BUT HARD TO ENVISION:
If you took all the DNA from a single human’s 30 trillion (or so) cells and un-coiled it, then set it end upon end, it would stretch about 60 trillion meters, which is 60 billion kilometers (about 37 billion miles). A round trip from Earth to the sun and back is about 300 million kilometers (about 186 million miles). Thus, the total DNA in our bodies, stretched end to end, would go to the sun and back about 200 times. And if that’s not sufficiently impressive for you, how about this: the DNA inside of us would extend from our planet to Pluto and back about four-and-a-half times.
Here's a gross understatement: That’s a lot of DNA. So how is all that DNA packed inside the cell?”
― Taming Cancer: 21st Century Biology and the Future of Cancer Medicine
If you took all the DNA from a single human’s 30 trillion (or so) cells and un-coiled it, then set it end upon end, it would stretch about 60 trillion meters, which is 60 billion kilometers (about 37 billion miles). A round trip from Earth to the sun and back is about 300 million kilometers (about 186 million miles). Thus, the total DNA in our bodies, stretched end to end, would go to the sun and back about 200 times. And if that’s not sufficiently impressive for you, how about this: the DNA inside of us would extend from our planet to Pluto and back about four-and-a-half times.
Here's a gross understatement: That’s a lot of DNA. So how is all that DNA packed inside the cell?”
― Taming Cancer: 21st Century Biology and the Future of Cancer Medicine
