Scientists in Israel have successfully used strands of DNA to create molecular sized circuits to make tiny transistors that build themselves.
“What we’ve done is to bring biology to self-assemble an electronic device in a test tube,” Dr. Erez Braun, a physicist at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, told the New York Times.
The scientists made transistors out of carbon nanotubes, cylindrical molecules that are about one ten-millionth of an inch in diameter and resemble rolled-up chicken wire.
The new technique takes advantage of a biological process known as recombination, where a segment of DNA is swapped out for a nearly identical piece. The cell uses recombination to repair damaged DNA and to swap genes. A special protein helps connect the replacement DNA to the desired location.
By attaching a nanotube to the protein, the nanotube moves to an exact location along the DNA strand.
“The DNA serves as a scaffold, a template that will determine where the carbon nanotubes will sit,” Braun said. “That’s the beauty of using biology.”
The scientists then coated the DNA with gold, producing a simple electronic device consisting of the nanotube connected to gold wires at each end. Current through the nanotube could be switched on or off by applying an electric field — the definition of a transistor.
Source: United Press International
