Tag: health
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How Do Carcinogens Cause Cancer?
It is a well known fact that certain food items or chemicals can increase our chances of getting cancer – but why is this? A carcinogen is a substance, organism or agent capable of causing cancer – common examples include radiation, smoking, and alcohol1. Cancer is a disease in which some of the body’s cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body2. Some carcinogens cause direct damage to DNA, which…
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Why is DNA a Double Helix?
I am sure we’re all aware of the famous double helix structure, but how many of us have pondered over actually why DNA’s atoms are arranged like this? To do this, we need to pick apart the contributions to the overall free energy change (a measure of the amount of usable energy in a system1) as you go from the unfolded state (single, separate strands) to the…
Molecular Perspective 