University scientists have successfully created a liquid form of DNA, a discovery that could prove important in the technological field.
The latest issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society featured a paper describing the experiment, which was the result of collaboration between chemistry professors Royce Murray and Holden Thorp and graduate student Tony Leone.
While the practical uses of the discovery have not yet been fully explored, Thorp said the liquid DNA could be used for microelectrical applications, such as one day perhaps building a computer run by DNA.
Leone said the computer industry is always looking to make machines smaller, and the liquid DNA, which is the consistency of molasses, might be a good electrical conductor.
"The (DNA) molecule by itself is not able to do it," Leone said. "In this liquid form, the DNA is conductive."
Murray said liquid DNA also is soluble in a number of common experimental solvents, whereas solid DNA is only soluble in water. This application will allow scientists to study and process DNA in different ways. Experiments that cannot take place in water, such as organic reactions involving DNA, can now be studied.
"We can't stand up and say there are any practical applications, but there are things we can explore," Thorp said.
Murray said the catalyst for the experiment came almost ten years ago, when he was searching for a process to make chemical materials molten. He found that if polymers -- a type of chemical compound that consists of repeating structural units -- were added to solid substances, they disorganized the solid's ordered structure.
Murray said a particular polymer, ethylene glycol, successfully converted the solid to a liquid on every test.
