strands of DNA together compared to the strength of the bonds within each strand. Experimental methods which can directly measure the mechanical properties of DNA are relatively new, and high-resolution visualization in solution is often difficult. Nevertheless, scientists have uncovered large amount of data on the mechanical properties of this polymer, and the implications of DNA's mechanical properties on cellular processes is a topic of active current research. The DNA found in many cells can be macroscopic in length: a few centimetres long for each human chromosome. Consequently, cells must compact or package DNA to carry it within them. In eukaryotes this is carried by spool-like proteins named histones, around which DNA winds. It is the further compaction of this DNA-protein complex which produces the well known mitotic eukaryotic chromosomes. In the late 1970s, alternate non-helical models of DNA structure were briefly considered as a potential solution to problems in DNA replication in plasmids and chromatin. However, the models were set aside in favor of the double-helical model due to subsequent experimental advances such as X-ray crystallography of DNA duplexes, and later the nucleosome core particle, and the discovery of topoisomerases. Such non-double-helical models are not currently accepted by the mainstream scientific community. DNA structure determination using molecular modeling and DNA X-ray patterns After DNA has been separated and purified by standard biochemical methods, one has a sample in a jar much like in the figure at the top of this article. Below are the main steps involved in generating structural information from X-ray diffraction studies of oriented DNA fibers that are drawn from the hydrated DNA sample with the help of molecular models of DNA that are combined with crystallographic and mathematical analysis of the X-ray patterns. Paracrystalline lattice models of B-DNA structures A paracrystalline lattice, or paracrystal, is a molecular or atomic lattice with significant amounts (e.g., larger than a few percent) of partial disordering of molecular arrangements. Limiting cases of the paracrystal model are nanostructures, such as glasses, liquids, etc., that may possess only local ordering and no global order. A simple example of a paracrystalline lattice is shown in the following figure for a silica glass: Liquid crystals also have paracrystalline rather than crystalline structures. Highly hydrated B-DNA occurs naturally in living cells in such a paracrystalline state, which is a dynamic one despite the relatively rigid DNA double helix stabilized by parallel hydrogen bonds between