EXPLAIN THIS: Meet Your Body’s Incredible Un-tangler of Lethal DNA Knots

If you’ve ever had to untangle a garden hose with multiple knots, or the strings on a pair of running shoes that somehow became a deviously twisted morass, you know how frustrating and difficult it can be to get it all straightened out.

But what if your life depended on you being able to make all those knots go away and quickly? In fact, your body’s DNA has precisely that problem regularly. And because you are still here reading this HillFaith post, we can be sure your body somehow found the perfect solution.

It’s called the Topoisomerase Molecular Machine, an amazing microscopic-level protein that untangles knots in your DNA that if left unattended would kill every cell in your body, leaving you, well, dead. This animated video from Discovery Science explains how this amazing illustration of cellular engineering works: