Episode 18, Part 1 – The Astonishing Length of Your DNA

Peace and God's mercy be upon you, dear ones. We said that we would examine examples from this perfectly ordered universe. Today we begin with the genetic material in our bodies. What you will hear is extremely astonishing, so I will document the information as thoroughly as possible.

God Almighty says: “And on the earth are signs for those who are certain [in faith], and in yourselves. Then will you not see?” [Adh-Dhariyat 51:20–21].

The Human Body: Cells and Their Number

Your body consists of cells, the smallest living units. If we took a tiny point of your skin, it would appear under a microscope in this form. How many cells do you think your body contains?

Estimates have in fact varied greatly. The best study summarizing the subject was published in Annals of Human Biology in 2013 and compiled estimates from 30 earlier books and studies concerning the number of cells in the body. It concluded that your body contains about 37.2 trillion cells—that is, 37 million million cells.

The small segment of a finger contains hundreds of millions of cells. Every cell in the body receives oxygen and nourishment, disposes of its waste, and constitutes a world of its own. Today we will speak specifically about its nucleus, a tiny part within this already tiny cell.

Inside the Cell: The Nucleus and Genetic Material

Let us enter the nucleus. It contains the genetic material, DNA, which carries your hereditary traits in the form of genes. One gene is responsible for eye color; another is responsible for producing insulin, and so on.

This genetic material, composed of genes, is arranged into chromosomes. Here is one chromosome. Each human being has 23 pairs of chromosomes. Every pair contains one chromosome inherited from the father and another from the mother. This is an actual electron-microscope image of a chromosome, resembling spools of wool.

The DNA in a chromosome is an extremely thin and exceedingly long thread. For the tiny nucleus to accommodate it, it is organized in an extraordinary way: it wraps around proteins called histones, the resulting coils wrap around themselves, and so on. It is packed with tremendous density.

The Astonishing Length of DNA

If we took the 23 chromosome pairs in one small cell nucleus, stretched out their compressed DNA, and joined it end to end, its total length would be about 2 meters per nucleus. The Physics Factbook compares the length of the DNA in a single cell nucleus according to several references. This is the length of the genetic material in one nucleus within one cell.

How many cells did we say the body contains? About 37.2 trillion. Subtract the red blood cells and platelets because they have no nuclei, and about 10 trillion nucleated cells remain. Multiply 2 meters, the length of the DNA in one cell, by 10 trillion, the number of relevant cells in your body, and the result is truly enormous.

The result is 20 trillion meters, or 20 billion kilometers—20 billion kilometers of DNA in the cells of your body alone. This number is also stated by established biochemistry textbooks, such as Biochemistry For Dental Students on page 75, and by The Physics Factbook in entry 339.

Comparing the Length of DNA with Astronomical Distances

Do you know, brothers, what 20 billion kilometers means? The same encyclopedia helps us picture it by saying that this length is sufficient for about 70 round trips from Earth to the sun. This is, incidentally, a relatively modest estimate. International scientific websites that estimate a greater number of cells reach an even higher figure for the length of the DNA. Scitable, a website affiliated with Nature Publishing Group, estimates that each of us has enough genetic material to travel from here to the sun and back 300 times, or even more.

Let us set aside that website's multiplied figures and retain the lower estimate of 20 billion kilometers. To understand this distance better, picture the planet Earth upon which we live, with its plains, mountains, valleys, forests, seas, oceans, and deserts. Earth is about a million times smaller than the sun. The circumference of the sun is estimated at 4 million and 370 thousand kilometers, while the length of the DNA in your body is 20 billion kilometers—that is, 20 thousand million kilometers. It could wrap around the sun a great many times: more than 4 thousand and 500 times.

I know these numbers are difficult to believe. I hesitated greatly before presenting them, but I found many references pointing in the same direction and even to higher figures. Despite very extensive searching, I did not find a single reference presenting detailed calculations that reached a lower figure. In the first comments on the episode on my Facebook page, I will post another clip titled Details of the Length of Genetic Material, explaining where these immense figures came from and providing further scientific documentation, God willing.

The Dynamic Nature of Genetic Material

The astonishment does not stop there, brothers. This is only the beginning of a story that leaves one speechless. The genetic material is not simply packed in this form and left there; parts of it undergo reading processes around the clock.

Suppose you suffer a wound. Healing requires many processes, including the production of collagen protein to repair it. Specialized particles target precisely the genes responsible for collagen amid these exceedingly long threads of genetic material. They read those genes, and the reading produces collagen. The genetic material is not a set of rigid, dead, packed threads; it is active and interactive. We will discuss the process of reading genes in a coming episode, God willing. It is no less astonishing than the length of the genetic material.

A Challenge to Deniers and Conclusion

Ask whoever denies his Lord: who fashioned your body in this way? He will answer: nothing did it. Nothingness brought your body into existence and made its millions upon millions of cells differentiate into bone cells, flesh cells, nerve cells, fat cells, blood cells, and others. Nothingness produced the hormones necessary for cell division and guided each cell to its proper place. Nothing did all of this, and it did it entirely by chance.

Nothingness packed the genetic material within your cells in this astonishing way. Nothingness brought the genetic material into existence, wrapped it around histones, coiled those structures around one another, and folded and twisted them in an orderly manner so that they could unfold when needed with equally ordered, precise, and marvelous organization. Nothing did all this by chance.

As for us, we say: “This is the creation of Allah. So show Me what those other than Him have created. Rather, the wrongdoers are in clear error.” [Luqman 31:11].

Peace be upon you.