• Question: how can you tell if a cell is dead or not?

    Asked by nickskylark to Dr D, Helen on 19 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by footmyster998, lucasducloux, kanjd005.
    • Photo: Andrew Devitt

      Andrew Devitt answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      It starts to shrink. Its DNA get all squashed up and chopped up. It starts to look pretty unhappy! We can see these changes on a microscope. If we stain the DNA bright green or blue (using some really pretty dyes) you can see the DNA changing. We can also look at their size using some cool techniques with lasers. A big cell will diffract laser light more than a little cell.

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