DNA art imitates life: Construction of a nanoscale mobius strip

October 4, 2010

By hammersmith

[Source: ScienceDaily] – The enigmatic Möbius strip has long been an object of fascination, appearing in numerous works of art, most famously a woodcut by the Dutchman M.C. Escher, in which a tribe of ants traverses the form’s single, never-ending surface.

Scientists at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University’s and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, led by Hao Yan and Yan Liu, have now reproduced the shape on a remarkably tiny scale, joining up braid-like segments of DNA to create Möbius structures measuring just 50 nanometers across — roughly the width of a virus particle.

For more information: DNA Art Imitates Life: Construction of a Nanoscale Mobius Strip