FWIW from Discovery Ch >>Microscopic Storage Has Giant Implications
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Scientists believe they'll one day be able to store all the texts of the Library of Congress on a space the size of a speck of dust.
In a first step, researchers are letting DNA molecules build electronic circuits.
The implications are as far reaching as the proportions are microscopic. A microchip assembled with DNA could create faster, cheaper and more complex computers and electronic products. A computer built with DNA-made microchips could store 100,000 times as much information as a current model.
Israeli physicist Uri Sivan, chemist Yoav Eichen and biophysicist Erez Braun have already produced a conductive wire that is one-thousandth the width of a hair, or less than half the size of the thinnest wires in use today. They eventually hope to build a wire that is 250 times smaller than the existing ones.
"We are using the same machinery used in biology. We are taking advantage of 4.5 billion years of evolution and letting the DNA do most of the work,'' Sivan.
The process of building a microchip with DNA begins the same way an ordinary chip is built. However, single strands of DNA molecules are attached to the gold electrodes that are traditionally used as connectors.
Video of Braun's experiment was taken through a microscope. The footage showed the molecules of the DNA strand quickly recognizing each other and attaching to the two electrodes to create a bridge.
To make the bridge conduct electricity, a thin layer of silver was added onto the structure, resulting in a tiny metal wire.
The idea to harness the self-assembling abilities of tiny DNA molecules to create electronic circuits was the result of ongoing conversations between the three Technion colleagues.
The team said the research is still in its infancy, and they have far to go before meeting a 1958 challenge by a colleague, Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman, to store the Library of Congress on a speck of dust.
"We have shown that DNA molecules can be effectively used as organizers for the simplest electronic component, a conducting wire," said Eichen.
"The next step is a self-assembled transistor 100 times smaller than those used in present microchips," he added.
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