He coated the rock in “a special epoxy” to prevent it from crumbling during slicing. Then, he washed the thin sections in a special dye that stained the DNA of the microbial cells.

What does that mean—I thought DNA was smaller that the wavelength of visible light? I guess it’s some larger molecule that binds to the DNA to make it more visible, but if that’s the case, “tagging” seems like a more appropriate term than “staining”.

[–] Glowstick 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

A single dna molecule is too small to see with the naked eye, but a few million dna molecules released from a few million microbes is easy to see IRL. In my bio lab days we did an experiment to isolate the dna molecules from a scoop of microbes, and at the end you wind up with a clump of dna molecules that together are about the size of an eraser head.

And yeah as the other person said, the term "staining" is the official term used for what you're calling "tagging"

[–] xpinchx 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What does DNA feel like? Smell like?

[–] Glowstick 2 points 1 month ago

I don't remember, it was a long time ago. But I'm sure a biology major or professional biologist could answer your question

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