knitting with DNA
knitting with DNA
Last Updated on Sunday, 11 July 2010 09:06 Written by Administrator Sunday, 11 July 2010 09:06
By grabbing the ends of DNA with laser beams, one can make DNA do very unusual things. It is even possible to put a loop in a DNA molecule and slide it along a second DNA molecule, even though DNA and proteins are much too small to see with a microscope! At VU University, Amsterdam, we use so-called “optical tweezers” to grab plastic beads with a diameter of only a thousandth of a millimeter, that are visible under a microscope. The beads are caught in the focal point of a focused laser-beam. By sticking the ends of two DNA molecule to such beads, they can bend, twist and stretch the DNA anyway they like. This video demonstrates our DNA gymnastics trick.
Video Rating: 5 / 5
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Tags: knitting
@RobotBadger: If you can, please take a look at the December 2007 issue of the scientific journal Nature Methods, which contains the scientific publication behind this video — google for doi:10.1038/nmeth1126. That should clarify things.
This lacks any true proof at all. I see no phenotypic expressions, no tagging, no proteins… nothing is glowing…… This is silly.
they’re called optical tweezers
just google them 
I think they use a laser beam, and it’s the momentum transfer from the photons as they enter the higher refractive index bead that allows a force to be applied to it
i’m a little confused as to how light can grab something, but cool!
Lol
Pretty CoOl