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Self-Assembling DNA Pyramids
FleaPlus writes "Physicists in England and the Netherlands have unveiled a technique for constructing rigid DNA pyramids. With the technique, trillions of d4's can rapidly self-assemble from a solution of single-stranded DNA. The scientists also showed that single DNA strands called linkers could be used to attach the tetrahedra to each other, acting as a possible building block for 3D nanofabrication."
Since the article summary doesn't even begin to explain why this is significant, I'll attempt to.
First of all, the DNA pyramids are useful because they have some attractive properties, namely they are about 10 nanometers wide and are rigid. They are also tetrahedral in shapre (3 faces and a base) which makes them good building blocks. This all lends itself rather nicely to developing things like three dimensional electronic circuits.
Today's announcement is simply to say that scientists have fonud a way to do this all in a single step by mixing trillions of the base strands in a mixture to produce the mini-pyramids. However, what is really needed moving forward, is a way to bind all of these pyramids into more complex structures. For more information, check out the article on PhysicsWeb
Scion worked quickly to trademark a new catch phrase - "You can get a lot of mileage out of building things with tetrahedra" hoping to appeal to nano-nerds everywhere.
In other news:
Slashdot users everywhere used the "Free day pass" overwhelming the servers, leaving the site stagnant. Users who thought they could increase there Karma by posting semi-witty comments to stories early, found themselves unable to post for the last 20 minutes and mocked by the message "This story is currently under construction".
// no
Man those D&D games are getting complicated!
Oh... nevermind
---
"Physicists in England and the Netherlands have unveiled a technique for constructing rigid DNA pyramids."
Goes perfect with Egyptians created from DNA.
Let my nucleotides go!
This is a dupe, the egyptians did this millenia ago. And don't come and tell me they carried those blocks themselves.
From TFA:
The scientists also showed that single DNA strands called linkers could bind two adjacent tetrahedra. The next challenge, says Goodman, is to coax multiple tetrahedra into more-complex structures.
1. Assemble DNA strands into full scale models of a nude Natalie Portman.
2. ???
3. Profit!
In Soviet Russia, this post makes perfect sense. No, it really does!
Christ, I gotta get some sleep.
So the real builders oof the pyramids are nonfrabricators. The Egyptians grew them instead of using slave labor to drag blocks into place or getting help from UFOs.
Nanu Nanu (obligatory Mork and Mindy reference).
And I thought stat-inflation was bad before...
"Loknar, roll ten to the eighteenth D4s. And this time, try to keep them all on the table."
I used to be someone else. Now I'm someone better.
Real life is underrated.
So if I store my razor blades under this, will they remain eternally sharp?
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
they made a crystal. how novel.
So by stacking a bunch of these iddy biddy pyramids together, we get one big one. Whoa...Nobel is knocking.
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
I knew my DNA had to be a pyramid.
It is more in line with my shape, gets wider the farther you go down!
You forgot
In soviet Russia tetrahedra assemble you
In related news, Bush declared the DNA Pyramids a terrorist cell for their resemblance to Egyptian pyramids.
If so, then you can call it a food pyramid! :P
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
trillions of d4's can rapidly self-assemble from a solution of single-stranded DNA
In other news, several cheerleaders who were interviewed stated that they were skeptical as pyramids in general are "way hard." They also stated that they doubted the numbers claimed as the largest pyramid they had heard of was composed of 280 or so cheerleaders and that a trillion is "like at least double that."
Will the powers that be let us talk about these new "day passes"?
"Tetrahedral overlords" reminds me of a P. Schuyler Miller story...
Just as soon as you send $1.00 each to the following people, then place your name on the top of the list and delete the last name from the bottom of the list! It's that simple and totally legal!*
* In Antarctica
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
ned seeman at nyu has been doing this for years
it has little if any practical value; dna is VERY $$, and a delicate molecule that is destroyed by normal shipping temperatures (at least in tuscon)
the idea that dna will be any sort of industrial material for anything is fantasy
This explains my mysterious Z chromosome...
Unexpect the expected!
Seems kind of scary to use Bio building blocks to do nano-tech construction. Will the industrial use of DNA nano-blocks have biosafety scrutiny? I hope that some wonderfully usefull industrial nano-object does not end up with a potent lethality, particularly if it somehow can replicate in the wild.
enough is too much
Should I be more embarrassed that I get my news from a source that calls tetrahedra "d4s", or that I immediately knew what that meant?
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
It's nice to see they're finally making use of that captured Goa'uld technology.
One man's religion is another man's belly-laugh. - LL
So it wasn't the aliens...
Bah, watch people mention a million things they can build from this thing. Big deal, I can build a whole person from DNA.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
I can assure you bio nano-building blocks are not the least scary. I am working with them every day.
Ok, so it is a big strange that my left leg has turned a solid grey-bluish color, but it works just as well as the initial one and I've gotten used to it solving math questions faster than me.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
...entire self-assembling DNA-based organisms. Scientists are working hard on the technology, but research is hampered by a mysterious and poorly understood preliminary stage called "sex".
If you ever thought you might like to get paid for playing with Lego's this looks like the closest you are going to get.
;) Then when you turn on the light, and view under a microscope, you'd see your model rendered in color.
How about this idea: You tag blocks with flourescent dyes and assemble them according to a computer voxel model one color at a time (using whatever method pleased you the most
BTM
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
What is $$
In plastics, a buck a pound is typical for commodity PS; super $$ peek is 13 dollars a pound. I don't know what the cost of oligos is, but a hundred bucks a gram is the cheapest i have ever heard.
DNA is NOT stable lyophilized; you only think that cause you don't have good analytical tools like dggge or sscp or maldi, and your enzymes filter out the bad stuff
Sure, dna may possibly be usefull for some esoteric or trace apps, but as an industrial base material - nah (and don't quote pcr barcode oligos as tracers )
... using socks or tissues as foundations, of course.
This is awesome, I accidentally produced something that I suspect is very similar to this no more than 8 months ago using DNA to self-assemble gold nanoparticles. The pictures are gorgeous (but inconclusive, unfortunately). http://web.mit.edu/neltnerb/www/bn-triangles-1.jpg
http://web.mit.edu/neltnerb/www/bn-triangles-2.jpg
Sorry, I have no particular desire to register an account here for my very rare posts.
And Kuna, don't laugh. I promise, I'm not a total dork. But DNA self assembly is still cool.
What would be the life expectancy of such constructions? IIRC, DNA are pretty "fragile" molecules.
(The halflife for a normal RNA molecule in the cell kernel is quite short, right?)
If you have a use with controlled temperature (and no hungry bacteria around!) in a given solution, DNA is stable enough to make applications?
(With or without DNA modifications?)
Would it be easy to vary the sequence on the DNA so you could have enzymes cutting up the pyramids in specific places?
Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
THANK YOU for your submission of a new
[x] nanostructure
[ ] laser
[ ] transistor
using
[ ] straw and bailing wire
[x] DNA strands
[ ] silicon
This is a bad idea, because
[x] a 3-D structure is difficult to heat-sink
[x] scientists likely never will produce a transistor this way
[ ] this is a case of outright fraud
The problem however is not to make circuits
[ ] out of lasers
[x] 3-D
[x] self ordered
But the problem is to make them
[x] reliably
[x] at low cost
[x] faster
Further this article was published in
[ ] Science
[ ] New Scientist
[ ] Nature
[x] Science News
which is primarily a publicity-seeking mag, and not a great peer-reviewed journal for physics.
I can say this because I have a
[ ] BS
[ ] MS
[x] PhD
in
[x] Physics
[ ] Electrical Engineering
Surely you meant
In Soviet Russia DNA assemble you
And in fifty years we can read:
"Yet another entire biota was wiped out by the pyramidal prions. Earlier this week we could see how Puerto Rican biota was wiped out by the ever growing pyramidal prions. The island state was literally covered with small, inch high grey pyramids. The US Government now fears the pandemic will spread onto mainland US and has banned all border crossing, in or out, and the import of any organic matter. It is believed that once the pyramidal prions enters living tissue it starts replicating itself and in a matter of days have consumed its helpless victim."
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
In America, you live to fight another day. In undeveloped countries, you fight to live another day.
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