DNA and RNA

In DNA and RNA, the nucleotides bond together at the phosphate group and the sugar, so the "backbone" is a chain of alternating phosphate and sugar. Brancing off from the sugar is a nitrogenous base. Here is a happy diagram of DNA:

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid) can be easily copied because one type of nitrogenous base only has one complement: adenine always pairs up with thymine (or uracil in RNA), and guanine always pairs up with cytosine. It is a practical way of storing the information.

A gene is a segment of DNA that codes for a molecule, usually a protein.

DNA has a double helix shape, meaning there are two strands, and they're twirled together like a helix. I'm sure you all know what DNA looks like. At least I hope you do, because I can't draw it right now. The double helical structure was discovered by Watson and Crick.

DNA and RNA have a few (okay, a lot of) differences, so here is a table displaying all of the differences:

Characteristic	DNA	RNA
length	DNA is significantly longer than RNA, because it stores all of the genetic information.	RNA is short because it carries one gene at a time.
number of strands	two	one
location in cell	Nucleus only - it is too big to go through the nuclear membrane.	Nucleus and cytoplasm; it can travel everywhere because it's more practical than hauling big ol' DNA around whenever we want to make a molecule.
nitrogenous bases	A, T, C, G	A, U, C, G
sugar used	deoxyribose	ribose
how it's made	DNA replication	transcription

Now, an explanation of protein synthesis will tie all of these together (hopefully).

Nucleic Acids
- Nucleotides
- DNA and RNA
- Protein synthesis