You could fit 90,000 strands of DNA side by side in a single adult human hair. Yup, that’s very much true. DNA strand is a very thin molecule averaging only about two nanometers in width. That is roughly two billionths of a meter.

When you compare the width of DNA with your hair then it is very thin. As given above, DNA double helix is about 2 nanometers wide while the width of average adult human hair is around 180 micrometers. This means that an average human hair roughly equals 90,000 strands of DNA kept side by side. 

DNA strand is also a very long molecule. For instance, if we lay out every DNA strand (in a cell) end to end, it would measure around 2 meters. So, it is nearly impossible to pack it inside the nucleus of a cell. But, the incredible thinness of the DNA strand allows it to be very tightly packed.

Also Read: 11 Amazing Facts about DNA You didn’t Know.

So now we know that 90,000 strands of DNA can be packed inside a single human hair. Also, we now know that a DNA strand is not only thin but also very long (i.e. about 2 meters long). 🙂. So that is all for now, meet you in my next article. Keep Reading, Keep Exploring, and Keep Sharing your Knowledge, and above all BE CURIOUS. 🙂

Also Read: How a 2 meters long DNA is fitted into a 2 micrometers Nucleus?

References:

• DNA Strands | What are DNA Strands? | AncestryDNA® Learning Hub. (2021). Retrieved 10 August 2021,