Model showing supercoiling of DNA (yellow and black) made at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge

We are normally used to seeing DNA modelled as a double helix. This model shows the ‘supercoiling’ of DNA. Supercoiling means that the double helix structure has become twisted into a tighter coil, storing the genetic material in a very small space. It can twist in a clockwise or an anticlockwise direction. The model was made by the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge University.