Tag: Microscope

ScienceDaily (Apr. 12, 2011) DNA nanotechnology makes use of the ability of natural DNA strains' capacity for self asssembly. Prof. Alexander Heckel and his doctoral student Thorsten Schmidt of Goethe University were able to create two rings of DNA only 18 nanometers in size, and to interlock them like two links in a chain. Such a structure is called catenan, a term derived from the Latin word catena (chain).
Schmidt, who got married during the time he was working on the nano-rings, believes that they are probably the world's smallest wedding rings.

ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2011) A new microscope invented by scientists at Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus will let researchers use an exquisitely thin sheet of light -- similar to that used in supermarket bar-code scanners -- to peer inside single living cells, revealing the three-dimensional shapes of cellular landmarks in unprecedented detail.

The microscopy technique images at high speed, so researchers can create dazzling movies that make biological processes, such as cell division, come alive.

ScienceDaily (Dec. 19, 2009) Using a microscope the size of a football field, researchers from The University of Western Ontario are studying why some insects can survive freezing, while others cannot.

Why is this important? Because the common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is one of the bugs that cannot survive freezing and the little creature just so happens to share much of the same genetic makeup as humans, therefore finding a way to freeze them for research purposes is a top priority for geneticists the world over (about 75 per cent of known human disease genes have a recognizable match in the genetic code of fruit flies).