This is so far out it is scary.
Israeli scientists harness DNA to assemble nano-transmitter
Dubai, Nov.21 (ANI): Israeli scientists have devised a functional electronic nano-device by using biological self-assembly for the first time.
According to NewScientist.com, Israeli scientists have harnessed the construction capabilities of DNA and the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes to create the self-assembling nano-transistor.
Nanotechnology experts have greeted the work as "outstanding" and "spectacular".
Manufacturing nano-scale transistors has proved both time-consuming and labour-intensive. The team, at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, overcame these problems with a two-step process.
First they used proteins to allow carbon nanotubes to bind to specific sites on strands of DNA. They then turned the remainder of the DNA molecule into a conducting wire.
"This is spectacular work," says Cees Dekker, a nanoscience expert at Delft University in the Netherlands. "It demonstrates that it's possible to use biology to build an inorganic device that works."
"But while it is a first step towards molecular computing based on this type of DNA configuration, we are still many years way from large scale self-assembly electronic devices, such as computers," Dekker cautions.
The device operates as a transistor when a voltage applied across the substrate is varied. This causes the nanotubes to either bridge the gap between the wires - completing the circuit - or not.
Out of 45 nanoscale devices created in three batches, almost a third emerged as self-assembled transistors. They work at room temperature and the only restriction for future devices is that the components must be compatible with the biological reactions and the metal-plating process.
"DNA is very good at building things in molecular biology, but unfortunately, it does not conduct electricity. We had to get a metal conductor on the DNA," explains physicist Erez Braun, who led the research.
Braun's team has already connected two of the devices together, using the biological technique. "The same process could allow us to create elaborate self-assembling DNA sculptures and circuitry," says Braun.(ANI)
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