Now, the breaking of the hydrogen bonds and the subsequent dissociation of that DNA molecule is known as melting. So DNA melting essentially refers to breaking these bonds and associating that DNA molecule. Now, the process of melting takes place abruptly at a very specific temperature and this temperature is known as the melting temperature of the DNA. In fact, the melting temperature of the DNA molecule is the temperature at which exactly half of that double helix structure has essentially dissociated. Now, the next question is if we have a beaker and inside that beaker we have a solution of DNA molecules and we begin to increase the temperature, we begin to heat that solution. How can we measure in a laboratory how much of the DNA has actually dissociated?