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posted by martyb on Friday December 08 2017, @11:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the know-when-to-hold-'em;-know-when-to-fold-'em dept.

Scientists shape DNA into doughnuts, teddy bears, and an image of the Mona Lisa

Scientists have made a big advance in building shapes out of the so-called building blocks of life. New techniques can shape DNA—the double-stranded helical molecule that encodes genes—into objects up to 20 times bigger than previously achieved, three separate groups report today. Together, the new approaches can make objects of virtually any shape: 3D doughnuts and dodecahedrons, cubes with teddy bear–shaped cutouts, and even a tiled image of the Mona Lisa. The techniques could someday lead to a bevy of novel devices for electronics, photonics, nanoscale machines, and possibly disease detection.

Scientists have been making shapes out of DNA since the 1980s, and those efforts took off in 2006 with the invention of a folding technique called DNA origami. It starts with a long DNA strand—called a scaffold—that has a precise sequence of the four molecular units, or nucleotides, dubbed A, C, G, and T, with which DNA spells out its genetic code. Researchers match patches of the scaffold to complementary strands of DNA called staples, which latch on to their targets in two separate places. Connecting those patches forces the scaffold to fold into a prescribed shape. A second version of the technology, introduced in 2012, uses only small strands of DNA—but no scaffolds—that assemble into Lego-like bricks that can then be linked together.

Gigadalton-scale shape-programmable DNA assemblies (DOI: 10.1038/nature24651) (DX)

Programmable self-assembly of three-dimensional nanostructures from 10,000 unique components (DOI: 10.1038/nature24648) (DX)

Fractal assembly of micrometre-scale DNA origami arrays with arbitrary patterns (DOI: 10.1038/nature24655) (DX)

Biotechnological mass production of DNA origami (DOI: 10.1038/nature24650) (DX)


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by unauthorized on Saturday December 09 2017, @02:10AM (1 child)

    by unauthorized (3776) on Saturday December 09 2017, @02:10AM (#607565)

    Playing is a naturally evolved mechanism for learning, and it is far more effective than the ass-backwards protestant-esque method of soul-crushing work. Boredom destroys creativity, if you aren't having fun while creating something then you are shutting down the most important pathways in your brain when it comes to developing novel ideas.

    There is a reason why we have the stereotype of inventive and creative types being slightly off the "normal" chart, and that's because our definition of normality is an artificially imposed mental disorder.

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  • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Saturday December 09 2017, @02:42AM

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Saturday December 09 2017, @02:42AM (#607580) Journal

    There is a reason why we have the stereotype of inventive and creative types being slightly off the "normal" chart

    Say! What do you call a demon made from folded paper?

    Orikami!

    [cackles, runs away]