The nucleus is a dense organelle that contains the genetic material of a cell. How dense? The human genome is around 3 billion nucleotides and the average length of a nucleotide is 0.6 nanometers, so stretched out the DNA in…
Tag: Cell
Biotech Basics: The Cell Membrane
As we mentioned in an earlier blog post, a cell is essentially a drop of a thick, watery substance (cytoplasm) surrounded by a layer of fats (cell membrane). The cell membrane separates the inside of the cell from the outside…
Lighting up Life with GFP
Meet the luminescent Aequorea victoria. This jellyfish lights up the eastern Pacific Ocean with a green fluorescent signal. Producing this signal is a two steps process. First a blue light is created through an interaction between released calcium (Ca2+) and…
Biotech Basics: An Introduction to Cell Biology
The basic unit of all living organisms, from bacteria to humans, is the cell. Robert Hooke first described the cell in 1665, when he used a microscope to examine a piece of cork. To his eyes, he saw an orderly…
