The electric slide dance of DNA knots
Wednesday, July 23, 2014 - 19:31
in Physics & Chemistry
DNA has the nasty habit of getting tangled and forming knots. Scientists study these knots to understand their function and learn how to disentangle them (e.g. useful for gene sequencing techniques). Scientists have been carrying out research in which they simulate these knots and their dynamics. They have now devised and tested a method based on the application of electric fields and “optical tweezers”.