DNA is a fantastic molecule. Its storage capacity outpaces today's best technology by lightyears. Show your students how it compares to computers today, teach your students its structure and how it replicates, and enjoy some fun facts along the way. Also, pause to ask yourself "How did DNA become like this?" Another great question to ask is "How do you get DNA without first having DNA?" This is a chicken or egg problem par excellence!

1. DNA Notes
Hi students! Copy the text in the yellow boxes.

2. DNA
NOTES

3. What is DNA?
DNA is an
information
storage
molecule.

4. DNA works like computer code.
Bill Gates said “DNA is like a computer program but far, far
more advanced than any software ever created.”
DNA stores information and controls the cell’s operations
like an operating system in a computer.

5. How do today’s computers compare to DNA?
In other words, how high tech is DNA?
What do you think?
a. DNA is not nearly as advanced as today’s best computers.
b. DNA is almost as advanced as today’s best computers.
c. DNA is just about advanced as today’s best computers.
d. DNA is more advanced than today’s best computers.
e. DNA is way more advanced than today’s best computers.
OR..

6. 1 Terabyte
What can you do with a terabyte?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=CE9OuNK-QWg
First, let’s take a look at our best computers and
electronic data storage.
In 2019 a 1 terabyte flash drive would fit in your hand.

7. What is “The Cloud?”
The cloud is a network of data centers across the world.
What is a data center?

8. A typical large data center can hold about 1 exabyte of data.
Most houses are around 1,700 square feet.
Data centers are around 352,000 square feet

9. https://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/storage-disaster-recovery/whats-the-storage-capacity-of-an-nsa-data-center/
Inside the data center are racks and racks of powerful computers
called servers. They need a lot of power. They get hot, and need
to constantly be cooled, which takes more power.

10. (Dimensions are based on a 352,000 square feet data center.)
One data center can store about 1 exabyte (1 million terabytes).
All the data in the world is about 2.7 zetabytes (2.7 terabytes).
In 2018, one large flash drive could hold 1 terabyte (1 thousand gigabytes)
If you put all of the world’s data into DNA form, it would fit into a
teaspoon (6 grams).

12. Have you changed your answer?
a. DNA is not nearly as advanced as today’s best computers.
b. DNA is almost as advanced as today’s best computers.
c. DNA is just about advanced as today’s best computers.
d. DNA is more advanced than today’s best computers.
e. DNA is way more advanced than today’s best computers.

13. -If all the DNA in one of your cells were uncoiled,
connected, and stretched out, it would be about 6 feet
long. It would be so thin its details could not be seen,
even under an electron microscope.

14. Structure of DNA
• DNA = Deoxyribonucleic acid
• Made out of sugars (deoxyribose), phosphates
and nitrogen bases
Double Helix polymer
This is a
nucleotide
YES – DRAW WHAT’S
IN THE YELLOW BOX

15. Nucleotides
• What is a
nucleotide?
• Three parts:
• 1)Phosphate,
• 2)sugar,
• 3)nitrogen
base.
H

16. A,T,G and C - The letters of life
Adenine Thymine
Guanine
Cytosine

17. DNA structure
• DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic Acid
• DNA is made up of molecules called nucleotides.
• Each nucleotide contains a phosphate group, a sugar
group and a nitrogen base.
• The four types of nitrogen bases are adenine (A), thymine
(T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C).
• The order of these bases is what determines DNA's
instructions, or genetic code.
• Similar to the way the order of letters in the alphabet can
be used to form a word, the order of nitrogen bases in a
DNA sequence forms genes, which tell cells how to make
proteins.

18. • Another type of nucleic acid, ribonucleic acid, or RNA,
translates genetic information from DNA into proteins.
• Nucleotides are attached together to form two long strands
that spiral to create a structure called a double helix.
• The bases on one side pair with the bases on another side:
• Adenine pairs with Thymine (A matches T)
• Guanine pairs with Cytosine (G matches C)
• DNA molecules are long — so long, in fact, that they can't fit
into cells without the right packaging. To fit inside cells,
DNA is coiled tightly to form structures we
call chromosomes.
• Each chromosome contains a single DNA molecule.
• Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, which are found
inside the cell's nucleus.
Adapted from: https://www.livescience.com/37247-dna.html

19. If you were to start reciting
the order of the ATCGs in
your DNA tomorrow morning,
at a rate of 100 each minute,
57 years would pass before
you reached the end…

20. Base Pairing
A pairs with T &
C pairs with G

21. Triplet
The code within DNA is based on a triplet system…
Each “word” in the DNA language is 3 letters long.
CCC CCA CCT CCG
CAC CAA CAT CAG
DNA codes in three letter words……

22. Lysine has 2 codons
that code for how to
build it – AAA and
AAG
Arginine has 4
codons that code for
how to build it –
CGU, CGC, CGA,
CGG
All of the blue words are amino acids – hundreds of amino acids put
together in a certain order make proteins. Proteins are the building
blocks for most of the structures in the cell.
This chart has all the different possible combos of triplets
(also called codons)

23. The ribosomes read the RNA then they put amino acids
together in a chain to make a protein molecule

24. -If all the DNA in your body were placed end-to-end, it
would stretch from here to the Moon more than
500,000 times!

25. The Story of Watson, Crick, and Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin vs. Watson and Crick – Science History Rap Battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35FwmiPE9tI

26. DNA History and DNA Replication
• Show Crash Course Biology – stop at 12:58
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kK2zwjRV0M&t=5

27. • DNA Replication
• DNA must replicate (copy) itself so that each new cell after
mitosis has the same DNA as the parent cell.
• The two new daughter cells that split from the parent cell are
genetically identical.
• DNA replication happens during the S phase (the Synthesis
phase) of the cell cycle, before mitosis.
• DNA replication occurs when DNA is copied to form an identical
molecule of DNA.
• How does DNA replicate (copy itself)? Check it out:
1. An enzyme called DNA Helicase unwinds the DNA and
separates it into two strands. This makes each strand one-sided.

28. 2. The two single strands of DNA then each serve as a
template for a new stand to be created. Because of the base
pairing rules, each uncovered base is given its matching base.
For example if ATG is on the "template strand," then TAC
will be on the new DNA strand.
3. An enzyme called DNA Polymerase reads the template
and builds the new strand of DNA by adding each matching base.
4. This process results in two DNA molecules - one old
strand and one new strand.
Adapted from www.ck12.org

29. -In book form, your DNA information
would fill the Grand Canyon almost
100 times.

30. DNA Replication
• DNA Replication Video “Molecular Visualization
of DNA” (Drew Berry, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjPcT1uUZiE

31. HONORS STUDENTS – YOU GET TO DRAW THIS! 

32. -If one set of
DNA (one cell’s
worth) from
every person
who ever lived
were placed in a
pile, the final
pile would weigh
less than an
toothpick.

33. What is a gene?
A human chromosome has thousands of genes
Each gene is a recipe for a protein!
A gene is a section of DNA that codes
for how to build something.

34. Chromosomes
Chromosomes are
bundles of DNA.
Humans have 23
pairs of homologous
chromosomes.
23 chromatids came
from mom, the other
23 came from dad.

35. Genome
Genome = All the
DNA in the
nucleus.

36. If the genome was written out
in book form, it would be the
equivalent of 4,000 books. It
would take a person typing
60 words per minute, eight
hours a day, around 50 years
to type the human genome.