01 What is DNA Base Pairs?
Deoxyribonucleic acid encodes all genetic information in living organisms. The double helix is held together by hydrogen bonds between complementary base pairs: A-T (2 H-bonds) and G-C (3 H-bonds). This specific pairing allows exact copying.
02 Why It Matters
DNA stores the instructions to build and run every living thing. Its structure (discovered by Watson, Crick, Franklin and Wilkins in 1953) immediately revealed the copying mechanism: each strand serves as a template for a new complementary strand.
03 Structure and Bonding
Shape: Double helix
Bonds: Hydrogen bonds between base pairs; phosphodiester backbone
Polarity: Polar (charged backbone) - The asymmetry of the molecule means bond dipoles don't cancel, giving the molecule a net dipole moment. This affects its solubility, boiling point, and interactions with other molecules.
If you stretched out all the DNA in a single human body end-to-end, it would reach the Sun and back roughly 70 times.