double helix
5
4.4
- noun
- /ˈdʌbəl ˈhiːlɪks/
- Specialized
:
doble hélice
- Everyone is familiar with the famous double-helix shape of DNA that makes it look like a twisted ladder.
- double helix of DNA
- double helix structure
- double helix model
If you look at human DNA, you have this double Helix structure.
- If you look at human DNA, you have this double Helix structure.
Examples
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Everyone is familiar with the famous double helix shape of DNA that makes it look like a twisted ladder.
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Two years later, the STM generated the first images of the DNA molecule and its double helix.
Academic text (1993) -
Did the DNA take forms other than a double helix?
Academic text (1993) -
And the chromosome of course is a double Helix for the DNA.
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They are crucial to the structure of proteins and the double-helix structure of DNA.
Academic text (2012) -
Once it is turned on, the RNA polymerase starts walking down the DNA double Helix, making messenger RNA.
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The opening of the exhibit coincides with the 50th anniversary of the modeling of the DNA double helix structure.
Academic text (2003) -
Strung together in the almost mystical double helix form of DNA, genes are the basic unit of heredity.
Academic text (1998) -
There is probably no more famous molecular structure than the double helix of DNA, first described by Watson and Crick in 1953 in a two-page note in Nature.
Academic text (1998) -
PNA can form double helices and can even intertwine with DNA, making it useful in genetic research.
Synonyms
11
6.0
A spiral shape that winds around like a spring or staircase
How Complex
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a structure of two intertwined spirals' is directly and transparently derived from 'double' (twofold) modifying 'helix' (a spiral/coiled shape); a learner who knows both words can compose the meaning. This is a literal, domain-specific compound following regular English noun modification and is cross-linguistically expressed similarly in scientific contexts, so it is immediately understandable.
Etymology
The noun double helix comes from a simple picture: double means two and helix is a spiral, so imagine two spirals twisted around each other. That's why the term describes the 'shape' of DNA, with two strands winding like a twisted ladder.