C-G

This sculpture represents a key part of the chemistry of your DNA. It is a base pair, Cytosine-Guanine to be precise. If DNA is viewed as a twisted ladder, the base pairs are the rungs of the ladder. They are the special bit that allows DNA to be copied easily and faithfully. This is an essential part of its role as the genetic material. Every day, billions and billions of unique copies of DNA are being copied in the cells of living organisms. When errors occur in the DNA you can get bad consequences such as diseases.

This sculpture represents the chemistry of the 2 bases, and the straight rods in the centre of the sculpture are the hydrogen bonds between Cytosine-Guanine bases that hold the two strands of DNA together. It is these hydrogen bonds that unzip allowing 2 complementary strands to separate in the process of copying or translation of the code. Each individual atom is represented by a human figure which is coloured according to the chemical standard: Carbon is black, Nitrogen is blue, Oxygen is red and Hydrogen white.

This is part of the DNA series of work