In other words, a piece of DNA that is 1 meter long will become a "string-of-beads" chromatin fiber just 14 centimeters (about 6 inches) long. Despite this shortening, a half-foot of chromatin is ...

With the exception of red blood cells, which contain no nucleus and no nuclear DNA, every one of these cells contains the human genome -- a string of three billion A's, C's, G's, and T's.