Mew Shaded Artemis + Mew Wily Gothica – Video


Mew Shaded Artemis + Mew Wily Gothica
PLEASE READ. Here #39;s the story and then a brief character bio for each Mew. Story:Anastasia Lestrange and her sister Ava lived with their Uncle, a very kind and rather wealthy young man. The two girls always bickered and disagreed. Anastasia was a sensible young lady who always did as she was told and always fought for a good cause. Her sister, however, was very rebellious and wild, and she grew to understand the world in a way very grim and different from her sister. While Anastasia lived a happier and more successful life than her sister, Ava became bitter and felt unloved and ignored. She craved attention and power, and often did very irrational things to get what she wanted- even if it meant hurting others to get it. When aliens began to attack their home planet, the Lestrange sisters #39; uncle began to use his money to work on a project that would aid in removing the aliens from their world. Anastasia, interested in his work, helped him. They became very busy, and Ava became very impatient and annoyed that everyone was paying even less attention to her than before. Soon, the project was completed and Anastasia was chosen to test it out. She was infused with the DNA of a Corsican Red Deer and emerged as Mew Shaded Artemis. Unknowingly to her and her uncle, however, Ava had spied on them and examined how the machine worked. While Anastasia was taken out to test out her new abilities, Ava snuck into the machine and tested it on herself. She was infused with the DNA of a ...From:IchuthecolorovererViews:1 0ratingsTime:02:11More inEntertainment

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Mew Shaded Artemis + Mew Wily Gothica - Video

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James D Watson death bed confession. – Video


James D Watson death bed confession.
In 1953 Watson stole the DNA files of Rosalind Franklin, and for doing so, Watson won the Nobel Prize for Science in 1962? This is like giving Nixon the Nobel Prize for Peace for bombing babies in Vietnam. Disgusting. Watson would not dare sue me for saying this, because the truth is a perfect defense in a libel action. Does anyone know where Watson lives? I would like to go interview him before he gets too old to remember his own lies. This saga begins in 1945 when Rosalind Franklin graduated with a Ph.D. from Cambridge. Franklin sets out to examine DNA using X-ray crystallography. With this technique a crystal is exposed to x-rays in order to produce a diffraction pattern. it is possible to reconstruct the positions of the atoms in the molecules that comprise the basic unit of the crystal called the unit cell. 1948 Pauling diagrams Alpha Helix on paper then folds the paper to realize how DNA structure has 2 strands. Pauling sends copies of his diagram to Franklin in London. Watson is now age 18 living on a farm in Indiana picking his nose. 1949 Franklin proves Pauling was right by taking a photo of the Alpha Helix, using an X-ray. Watson is now thinking of going to college. 1950 A chemist by training, Franklin had established herself as a world expert in the structure of graphite and other carbon compounds before she moved to London. 1951 Franklin works for John Randall at King #39;s College in London. Wilkins and Franklin set out to examine DNA using X-ray ...From:Paul KangasViews:3 1ratingsTime:10:21More inComedy

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James D Watson death bed confession. - Video

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New round of DNA tests finds dozens of repeat offenders in fish mislabeling

A year after a Globe investigation found restaurants and stores across Massachusetts were routinely selling cheaper, lower-quality fish than they promised customers, a new round of DNA testing shows the vast majority are still mislabeling seafood.

Kens Steak House in Framingham again served Pacific cod instead of a more expensive Atlantic species. Slices of fish sold as white tuna at Sea To You Sushi in Brookline were again actually escolar, an oily species nicknamed the ex-lax fish by some in the industry because it can cause digestion problems. H Mart, an Asian supermarket chain found to have sold mislabeled red snapper last year, this time was selling inexpensive freshwater Nile perch as pricier ocean grouper at its Burlington store.

The results underscore an ongoing lack of regulation in the nations seafood trade oversight so weak restaurants and suppliers know they will not face punishment for mislabeling fish. Over the past several months, the Globe collected 76 seafood samples from 58 of the restaurants and markets that sold mislabeled fish last year. DNA testing on those samples found 76 percent of them werent what was advertised.

Some restaurant operators who repeatedly mislabeled fish blamed suppliers. Others said naming inconsistencies were the result of clerical errors. Several made only partial revisions to their menus. Some, like at Hearth n Kettle in Attleboro, corrected their menus, but waitstaff still wrongly described the fish as local. And a few said the issue was not a priority.

Were too busy to deal with such silliness, Janet Cooper, of Kens Steak House, said after several phone interviews during which she could not explain why the restaurant was still selling far less expensive Pacific cod as locally caught fish.

After the Globes Fishy Business series last fall, state and federal lawmakers pledged quick action to strengthen oversight of the seafood industry. US Representative Ed Markey, Democrat of Malden, filed a bill in July to require traceability of fish from the boat to the dinner plate, but the legislation hasnt moved out of House subcommittees.

Elsewhere, little progress has been made to protect consumers from paying too much for inferior fish. The Food and Drug Administration, which maintains a list of acceptable market names for fish species, has historically focused efforts on food safety, rather than economic fraud such as seafood substitution. The agency recently began conducting its own DNA testing, but the results so far have provided little insight into where mislabeling occurs in the supply chain.

The Globe hired the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario at the University of Guelph to conduct DNA testing on the fish samples, as it did for the initial round of tests in 2011. The testing focused on certain species, such as red snapper and cod, because they have been identified by regulators as more likely to be substituted.

Seafood mislabeling persisted at the Sand Bar & Grille on Marthas Vineyard, where the Globe last year found farmed hybrid bass was switched for striped bass, and tilapia was misrepresented as red snapper.

Mike Wallace, who runs the Oak Bluffs restaurant, said he talked with his sushi chef after the Globes initial investigation and believed the issue was resolved. But DNA testing this year showed samples of albacore and red snapper were both tilapia, one of the cheapest farmed fish on the market.

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Electron microscope reveals what DNA really looks like

DNA was first isolated in the mid 1800s, but its true significance was not discovered until much later. As the field of molecular biology developed, science slowly discovered the incredible importance of DNA DNA carries all our genetic information across the generations. It took decades to figure out what DNA looks like, but when even when Watson, Crick, and Franklin posited the double-helix, it was an indirect observation. We have never been able to actually see DNA until now.

The 1953 breakthrough describing the double-helix was confirmed using x-ray crystallography. This is a process in which a molecule is bombarded with x-rays which bounce off the atoms. By observing the patterns of the reflected x-rays, scientists can calculate the location of atoms in the molecule. The new research from Enzo di Fabrizio at the University of Genoa is different because to visualizes DNA directly with an electron microscope.

The team created a water repellent surface that caused liquid in samples to dry out very quickly and deposit suspended strands of DNA. The surface is made up of tiny micro pillars that catch the DNA, holding it up where images can be taken. The results are pretty amazing you can actually see the repeating spiral pattern of DNA.

This first round of images cannot capture individual double-helices. The electron microscope needs to output so much energy to take the pictures, that it blows single strands apart. What youre seeing here are so-called DNA cords, bundles of six single strands wrapped around a central one.

The hope is that a more sensitive detector capable of capturing images at lower electron energies will allow the researchers to see single strands of DNA. The work could eventually allow scientists to closely study the way proteins and chemical agents interact with your DNA.

via New Scientist

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Electron microscope reveals what DNA really looks like

Posted in DNA

Cramer Chronicles: Top Chef, Part 1 – Video


Cramer Chronicles: Top Chef, Part 1
Schuyler showed up on Gigi #39;s doorstep with the results of the DNA test on Stacy #39;s hair. Gigi didn #39;t want to discuss the situation with Stacy until the comparison results, establishing whether or not Stacy could have donated bone marrow to Shane, were in. . Later, Gigi and Schuyler sat down to enjoy leftover lasagna while at the loft, Stacy and Rex had dinner. Viki went to the hospital to visit Téa. Téa was stunned when Viki told her about Jessica #39;s breakdown and Hope #39;s return to Starr. Viki visited Tea in the hospital and Viki shared that she had accepted Charlie #39;s proposal. Téa was happy for Viki; she wished she could find a man like Charlie. However, Téa realized that it was unlikely, since she was drawn to bad boys. At Rodi #39;s, Marty talked to John about Cole and confessed to wanting John. She told John to call her when he had made his decision. In La Boulaie #39;s kitchen, Dorian tried to instruct Moe on how to prepare a meal. Moe didn #39;t appreciate Dorian #39;s interference. Noelle stepped in to play peacemaker. She complimented Dorian for arranging a special dinner for Ray. Dorian insisted that Ray deserved some kindness after everything he had through. Noelle realized that Ray was important to Dorian. Dorian tried to deny it, but Moe and Noelle didn #39;t believe her. They assured Dorian that they would do their best to make her evening with Ray go smoothly. Dorian credited Moe and Noelle for bringing her and Ray together. Had Moe not invited Ray to stay at La Boulaie, Dorian ...From:dia1962Views:0 0ratingsTime:08:58More inEntertainment

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Cramer Chronicles: Top Chef, Part 1 - Video

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Cramer Chronicles: Top Chef, Part 3 – Video


Cramer Chronicles: Top Chef, Part 3
Schuyler showed up on Gigi #39;s doorstep with the results of the DNA test on Stacy #39;s hair. Gigi didn #39;t want to discuss the situation with Stacy until the comparison results, establishing whether or not Stacy could have donated bone marrow to Shane, were in. . Later, Gigi and Schuyler sat down to enjoy leftover lasagna while at the loft, Stacy and Rex had dinner. Viki went to the hospital to visit Téa. Téa was stunned when Viki told her about Jessica #39;s breakdown and Hope #39;s return to Starr. Viki visited Tea in the hospital and Viki shared that she had accepted Charlie #39;s proposal. Téa was happy for Viki; she wished she could find a man like Charlie. However, Téa realized that it was unlikely, since she was drawn to bad boys. At Rodi #39;s, Marty talked to John about Cole and confessed to wanting John. She told John to call her when he had made his decision. In La Boulaie #39;s kitchen, Dorian tried to instruct Moe on how to prepare a meal. Moe didn #39;t appreciate Dorian #39;s interference. Noelle stepped in to play peacemaker. She complimented Dorian for arranging a special dinner for Ray. Dorian insisted that Ray deserved some kindness after everything he had through. Noelle realized that Ray was important to Dorian. Dorian tried to deny it, but Moe and Noelle didn #39;t believe her. They assured Dorian that they would do their best to make her evening with Ray go smoothly. Dorian credited Moe and Noelle for bringing her and Ray together. Had Moe not invited Ray to stay at La Boulaie, Dorian ...From:dia1962Views:1 0ratingsTime:07:09More inEntertainment

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Cramer Chronicles: Top Chef, Part 3 - Video

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Cramer Chronicles: Top Chef, Part 2 – Video


Cramer Chronicles: Top Chef, Part 2
Schuyler showed up on Gigi #39;s doorstep with the results of the DNA test on Stacy #39;s hair. Gigi didn #39;t want to discuss the situation with Stacy until the comparison results, establishing whether or not Stacy could have donated bone marrow to Shane, were in. . Later, Gigi and Schuyler sat down to enjoy leftover lasagna while at the loft, Stacy and Rex had dinner. Viki went to the hospital to visit Téa. Téa was stunned when Viki told her about Jessica #39;s breakdown and Hope #39;s return to Starr. Viki visited Tea in the hospital and Viki shared that she had accepted Charlie #39;s proposal. Téa was happy for Viki; she wished she could find a man like Charlie. However, Téa realized that it was unlikely, since she was drawn to bad boys. At Rodi #39;s, Marty talked to John about Cole and confessed to wanting John. She told John to call her when he had made his decision. In La Boulaie #39;s kitchen, Dorian tried to instruct Moe on how to prepare a meal. Moe didn #39;t appreciate Dorian #39;s interference. Noelle stepped in to play peacemaker. She complimented Dorian for arranging a special dinner for Ray. Dorian insisted that Ray deserved some kindness after everything he had through. Noelle realized that Ray was important to Dorian. Dorian tried to deny it, but Moe and Noelle didn #39;t believe her. They assured Dorian that they would do their best to make her evening with Ray go smoothly. Dorian credited Moe and Noelle for bringing her and Ray together. Had Moe not invited Ray to stay at La Boulaie, Dorian ...From:dia1962Views:0 0ratingsTime:09:49More inEntertainment

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Cramer Chronicles: Top Chef, Part 2 - Video

Posted in DNA

Cramer Chronicles: Top Chef, Part 4 – Video


Cramer Chronicles: Top Chef, Part 4
Schuyler showed up on Gigi #39;s doorstep with the results of the DNA test on Stacy #39;s hair. Gigi didn #39;t want to discuss the situation with Stacy until the comparison results, establishing whether or not Stacy could have donated bone marrow to Shane, were in. . Later, Gigi and Schuyler sat down to enjoy leftover lasagna while at the loft, Stacy and Rex had dinner. Viki went to the hospital to visit Téa. Téa was stunned when Viki told her about Jessica #39;s breakdown and Hope #39;s return to Starr. Viki visited Tea in the hospital and Viki shared that she had accepted Charlie #39;s proposal. Téa was happy for Viki; she wished she could find a man like Charlie. However, Téa realized that it was unlikely, since she was drawn to bad boys. At Rodi #39;s, Marty talked to John about Cole and confessed to wanting John. She told John to call her when he had made his decision. In La Boulaie #39;s kitchen, Dorian tried to instruct Moe on how to prepare a meal. Moe didn #39;t appreciate Dorian #39;s interference. Noelle stepped in to play peacemaker. She complimented Dorian for arranging a special dinner for Ray. Dorian insisted that Ray deserved some kindness after everything he had through. Noelle realized that Ray was important to Dorian. Dorian tried to deny it, but Moe and Noelle didn #39;t believe her. They assured Dorian that they would do their best to make her evening with Ray go smoothly. Dorian credited Moe and Noelle for bringing her and Ray together. Had Moe not invited Ray to stay at La Boulaie, Dorian ...From:dia1962Views:1 0ratingsTime:09:39More inEntertainment

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Cramer Chronicles: Top Chef, Part 4 - Video

Posted in DNA

Top 40 Music Countdown 11/30/2012 – Video


Top 40 Music Countdown 11/30/2012
Here are your top 40 songs of the week for the week of November 30th 2012.. Remember to like, comment, rate, subscribe and enjoy!!! A List: Girls Aloud - Something New Rihanna - Diamonds Rita Ora - Shine Ya Light B List: Sub Focus Feat. Alpines - Tidal Wave Little Mix - DNA Naughty Boy Feat. Emeli Sande - Wonder C List: Bruno Mars - Locked Out Of Heaven Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble Robbie Williams - CandyFrom:top40musicchartViews:1 0ratingsTime:11:11More inMusic

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Top 40 Music Countdown 11/30/2012 - Video

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The Bigfoot Report – Bigfoot News #2 – Melba Ketchum and Matt Moneymaker's Public Fued – Video


The Bigfoot Report - Bigfoot News #2 - Melba Ketchum and Matt Moneymaker #39;s Public Fued
thebigfootreport.com bull; #8234;http (all things Tazer) Melba Ketchum comes under fire from the Bigfoot biggies. Finding Bigfoot #39;s Matt Moneymaker has harsh words for her as does Dr. Jeff Meldrum. WIth tweets from Joe Rogan and Rob Lowe. ----- melba ketchum, bigfoot sightings, sasquatch, yeti, bigfoot dna, footprints, abominable snowman, sasquatch, documentary, 2012 paranormal, gigantopithecus, erickson project, dr., jeff meldrum, yeren, mande burung, almas, yerin, doc, paranormal, discovery, zoology, extinct, species, snow walker, zoologyFrom:thebigfootreportViews:3 1ratingsTime:02:41More inTravel Events

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The Bigfoot Report - Bigfoot News #2 - Melba Ketchum and Matt Moneymaker's Public Fued - Video

Posted in DNA

Harvard scientists build tiny structures with DNA Legos

Engineers have found a new and unexpected use for the code of lifeas a commonplace building material that can be used to fashion precise 3D structures, ranging from miniature smiley faces to cubes.

Most people think of DNA as the master blueprint that is carried in every cell, spelling out the essential traits of organisms. DNA is the building block of life only in the metaphorical sense. But scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University saw in the material an unexploited versatility, if it were to be used as a real brick. They described Thursday in the journal Science an array of molecular Legos that could one day provide a useful scaffold for building tiny electronic circuits and drug-delivery devices.

To show just how much control they had over structures made of DNA, the team of researchers built a demonstration set of 100 figures. Those ranged from practical engineering feats, such as joining together two structures with a narrow connection, to the whimsicalthe alphabet, or a heart.

When Hendrik Dietz, who leads the Laboratory for Biomolecular Nanotechnology at Technische Universitt Mnchen in Germany, received a copy of the paper from a colleague at Harvard a few weeks ago, he was full of enthusiasm for the work. It represents a new level of control over building precisely tailored objects at the tiniest scales, he wrote in an e-mail. But Dietz said he also had an almost instantaneous emotional response.

The 3D thing is so awesome, he wrote to his colleague. I almost got tears in my eyes because of the joy. I love the Lego figures. When looking at this, one cannot help but submit to the power of DNA.

Peng Yin, a core faculty member of the Wyss Institute who led the research, said it was helpful for the researchers to think of the DNA as Lego bricks rather than as molecules. The code of DNA involves four lettersC, G, T, and Awhich abide by precise pairing rules: A matches up with T, and C with G. To build the structures, researchers started with short strands of DNA, each carrying eight-letter fragments that acted like the prongs on a Lego block. Each eight-letter fragment was like a Lego prong that would only fit one other predetermined Lego.

But unlike a kit that keeps kids busy for hours, these DNA structures required little assembly, once the structures had been designed, Yin said.

You just add some water and salt and increase the temperature to 90 degrees and let it cool down gradually over three daysthats it, Yin said. In one test tube, there are billions of copies of these individual objects, but they all look the same.

The work, he said, demonstrates that DNA, essential for life, can have other uses. It builds on earlier research, in which Yins team found it could stack DNA bricks on one another in two dimensions. And earlier this year, Yins colleague at Harvard, George Church, showed that it was possible to turn DNA into a more conventional storage material. He took the text of his 284-page book, Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves, translated its words into binary codewords became a string of 0s and 1s. Then, they translated that binary into the letters of DNA, with As and Cs corresponding to 0 and Gs and Ts indicating a 1. They then they created 55,000 short strands of DNA that, read together and properly decoded, amounted to a genetic copy of the book.

Church, who is collaborating with Yin, said the new work would be helpful in any application in which precision was important.

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Harvard scientists build tiny structures with DNA Legos

Posted in DNA

Pathway to bypass DNA lesions in replication process is experimentally shown

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2012) DNA lesions are really common -- about one million individual molecular lesions per cell per day -- because its long strands usually have one missing base or are damaged. These lesions can stall the DNA replication process, what can lead to the cell death. To avoid it, there are several pathways to bypass lesions in order to continue with the process of DNA replication. One of these processes has been entirely reproduced in vitro using some techniques of manipulation of single-molecules in a study published November 30 in Science, led by the researcher of the University of Barcelona Maria Maosas.

"This pathway was proposed in the seventies and now we have been able to prove it on a bacteriophage through the manipulation of single-molecules that, oppositely to the traditional biochemical techniques that work with a great number of molecules, allows to study how a protein works on a molecule in real time," explains Maosas, professor at the Department of Fundamental Physics of the UB, affiliated with the campus of International excellence, BKC.

To study a single-molecule, we used magnetic tweezers, a technique which consists on tethering a DNA hairpin between a glass surface and a magnetic bead. A magnetic system generates a magnetic field which allows manipulating the beads and generates magnetic forces. This system can be used in order to measure the extension changes of DNA strands through the screening of the magnetic beads. According to Maosas, "proteins' activity over DNA can be inferred from the changes in the extension of the molecule. The changes are due to the proteins' work."

The template switching strategy

In the DNA replication process, the two strands who act as a template to synthesise a complementary strand are separated, and the new complementary strand joins each of the initial strands in order to obtain two identical copies of the original DNA molecule. In this process take part the polymerases, a family of enzymes that carry out all forms of DNA replication. When in any of the two derived strands there is a lesion, especially in the leading strand, the polymerase stops synthetizing the bases, so the replication process is stalled. "To stall this process can entail some problems in cellular growth," explains Maosas. "When the replication mechanism (replisome) is disassembled, the bypass process analysed in this study starts," points out the author, member of the Biomedical Research Networking center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN) and researcher at the University of Paris.

The studied process begins with the action of a helicase protein (UvsW) which promotes the binding of DNA strands, a phenomenon named DNA hybridization. This protein is also able to build an intermediate structure (Holliday junction) taking as a model the not damaged replicated strand and, together with the action of polymerase, drive the system to its departure point, once "jumped" the lesion, and then restart the DNA replication process. "Therefore, the information lost when one strand is damaged can be recovered from the other intact strand which acts as a backup; this process is named "the template switching strategy." In the study, we have also observed the regulation mechanisms of this pathway, as well as the rate of annealing of helicase UvsW, 1500 bases per second, one the largest known," concludes Maosas.

DNA repair is essential in a great number of diseases. A deeper knowledge of these phenomena will enable us to act over some proteins which have similar functions in humans. Maosas is working on this direction; she is carrying out a study on a human protein named HARP in order to know how it works, because it is known that it has a really important role in the genome conservation and its dysfunction is related to some types of cancer.

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Pathway to bypass DNA lesions in replication process is experimentally shown

Posted in DNA

Scientists build with tiny bricks of DNA

A video from Harvard's Wyss Institute explains how strands of DNA can be assembled into three-dimensional nanostructures like tiny Lego building blocks.

By Alan Boyle

Researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute have coaxed single strands of DNA to fit together like Lego bricks and form scores of complex three-dimensional shapes, including a teeny-tiny space shuttle. The technique, described in this week's issue of the journal Science, adds a new dimension to molecular construction and should help open the way for nanoscale medical and electronic devices.

"This is a simple, versatile and robust method," the study's senior author, Peng Yin, said in a news release.

The method starts with synthetic strands of DNA that take in just 32 nucleotides, or molecularbits of genetic code. These individual "bricks" are coded in a way that they fit together like Lego pegs and holes to form larger shapes of a specific design. A cube built up from 1,000 such bricks (10 by 10 by 10) measures just 25 nanometers in width. That's thousands of times smaller than the diameter of a single human hair.

The latest research builds upon work that the Wyss researchers detailed in May, which involved piecing together DNA strands to create two-dimensional tiles (including cute smiley faces). This time around, the strands were twisted in such a way that they could be interlocked, Lego-style. As any visitor to Legoland knows, such structures can get incredibly complex in the hands of a skilled builder.

Yin and his colleagues are still learning their building techniques. Fortunately, the bricks could be programmed to build themselves, with the aid of 3-D modeling software. Once the designs were set, the researchers synthesized strands with the right combinations of nucleotides adenosine, thymine, cytosine and guanine so that when they were mixed together in a solution, at least some of the bricks would form the desired design.

To demonstrate the method, 102 different 3-D shapes were created using a 1,000-brick template.

The Wyss researchers reported a wide variation in assembly success rate, or yield: Depending on the design, the yield ranged from 1 percent to 40 percent.That's roughly in the same range as the success rate for another method for molecular assembly, known as DNA origami. The origami method requires more custom work to design the "staples" to hold the DNA structures together, while the Lego-style method can rely more easily on a standard toolbox of DNA bricks.

In the future, DNA origami and DNA brick-building may be used together, said Kurt Gothelf, director of the Center for DNA Nanotechnology at Aarhus University in Denmark. "It is likely that a combination of the two methods will pave the way for making even larger structures in higher yields," Gothelf wrote in a commentary for Science.

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Scientists build with tiny bricks of DNA

Posted in DNA

Applied DNA Sciences Announces Third-Party Service for SigNature(R) DNA Authentication Marking of Electronics

STONY BROOK, NY--(Marketwire - Nov 29, 2012) - Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. ( OTCBB : APDN ), (Twitter: @APDN), a provider of DNA-based anti-counterfeiting technology and product authentication solutions, announced today the availability of a third-party SigNature DNA-marking service for electronics.

The service will provide a turn-key solution for ramping up SigNature DNA marking at the highest levels of quality and standards compliance.Electronics companies who opt to use the service benefit from a fast-track route to compliance with the requirement to use SigNature DNA marking issued by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), as well as for delivery to commercial buyers.

Said Dr. James A. Hayward, CEO and President of Applied DNA Sciences, "We are listening to our customers and prospective customers, who realize that a shorter time to market for this service has great competitive benefits for them.We are aware that, in the military sphere, important deadlines are approaching."

DLA, in a "Frequently Asked Questions for DNA Marking," issued November 8, stated that it is "firmly committed to a robust anti-counterfeiting program."In addition, DLA Vice-Admiral Mark Harnichek has stated that DNA marking is one of "four big things" that DLA is doing currently to mitigate counterfeit risk.

The new APDN service offers secure off-site implementation of SigNature DNA marking for companies who have met the qualification requirements for participation in the program.The third-party DNA marking service packages creation of a unique SigNature DNA mark with a quick-startup marking program at ADNAS facilities or at those of a licensee.SMT Corporation, based in Sandy Hook, CT is prepared to fulfill SigNature DNA marking orders immediately.

The DLA mandate for use of SigNature DNA was announced on August 7 in a clause in Defense Logistics Acquisition Directive (DLAD) 52.211-9074, and was expanded on November 7 with a provision atDLAD 52.211-9008. This mandate specifically requires SigNature DNA marking for procurements of items falling within Federal Supply Class 5962, Electronic Microcircuits.

While the DLA mandate applies only to procurements made by DLA, APDN's third-party marking service is designed to accommodate all government and commercial enterprises that are interested in the legal, health and safety, and brand protection benefits of the authentication platform.The company pointed out that SigNature DNA has been used and tested on a wide variety of products.

This year, new laws and regulations have cast a new national spotlight on anti-counterfeiting technologies like SigNature DNA.A well-known example is in the anti-counterfeiting language in Section 818 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Section 818).A major deadline for Section 818, which imposes strict requirements for control of counterfeits, is due to be reached soon.

About Applied DNA Sciences

APDN is a provider of botanical-DNA based security and authentication solutions that can help protect products, brands and intellectual property of companies, governments and consumers from theft, counterfeiting, fraud and diversion. SigNature DNA and smartDNA, our principal anti-counterfeiting and product authentication solutions that essentially cannot be copied, provide a forensic chain of evidence and can be used to prosecute perpetrators.

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Applied DNA Sciences Announces Third-Party Service for SigNature(R) DNA Authentication Marking of Electronics

Posted in DNA

What DNA Actually Looks Like

Scientists have developed a new method of imaging the building blocks of life. It involves an electron microscope and a bed of nails.

DNA, we are taught early on, is colorful. The building block of life is not just a whirligig-like twist, its purines and pyrimidines neatly paired and labeled; it is also an explosion of primary reds and blues and greens and yellows, the As and the Gs and the Cs and the Ts linked together to create a kind of modified, twisted rainbow.

Of course, that rendering takes artistic license. Watson and Crick determined DNA's structure[pdf, but a highly awesome one] based on a combination of sophisticated guesswork and, crucially, x-ray crystallography -- and that remains a workable, and powerful, technique for visualizing DNA strands. But crystallography creates its own kind of rendering: It's a technology whose imaging power relies on diffracted light. When we look at those now-iconic images of the double helix, the fuzzy X inside the fuzzy O, we're not seeing the DNA itself so much as we're seeing x-rays deflected from its atoms.

Which makes the image below pretty amazing. Though it is significantly less colorful than textbook DNA, and a tad less tidy than the double helix-demonstrating images produced by x-ray crystallography, it is, in certain ways, much more realistic. It isn't a rendering; it's a direct image of DNA, captured through an electron microscope. Yes. YES.

Computer renderings and actual images of a DNA molecule, as seen through an electron microscope (Enzo di Fabrizio via New Scientist)

The image showsa single thread of double-stranded DNAsuspended on a bed of nanoscopic silicon pillars. It wascreated by Enzo di Fabrizio and a team at Italy's University of Genoa, which developed a new technique ("an experimental breakthrough," they call it) for the purpose. The team, New Scientist reports, found a way to snag strands of DNA out of a dilute solution by, essentially, dehydrating them. They developed a pattern of extremely water-repellent, silicon nanopillars -- pillars that would cause moisture to evaporate quickly and leave behind strands of DNA as threads. And then, at the base of their "nanopillar bed," the team drilled tiny (very, very tiny) holes. And through those holes, they shone beams of electrons, which allowed them to capture relatively high-resolution images of the DNA thread.

And here's an even-closer-up view of the strand itself, its base pairs fuzzily evident in the magnification.

The team justpublished the details of this imaging technique in the journal Nanoletters. And the new system represents a significant step forward for nanobiology and all the fields connected to it, giving scientists a new way to understand DNA. Particularly when it comes to its structure -- the stuff beyond the double helix. "Direct imaging becomes important," the paper notes, "when the knowledge at few/single molecule level is requested and where the diffraction does not allow to get structural and functional information." The technique, New Scientist points out, will help researchers to understand more precisely how proteins, RNA, and other biomolecules interact with DNA.

Which is exciting. But even for those of us who are not researchers, the new approach gives us a whole new way to do something else: to see where we came from.

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What DNA Actually Looks Like

Posted in DNA

DNA Lego bricks produce nano-sculptures

By Ed Yong | November 29, 2012 1:17 pm

For tens of thousands of years, humans have created sculptures by carving pieces from a solid block. They have chipped away at stone, metal, wood and ceramics, creating art by subtracting material. Now, a group of scientists from Harvard University have figured out how to do the same thing with DNA.

First, Yonggang Ke builds a solid block of DNA from individual Lego-like bricks. Each one is a single strand of the famous double helix that folds into a U-shape, designed to interlock with four neighbours. You can see what happens in the diagram below, which visualises the strands as two-hole Lego bricks. Together, hundreds of them can anneal into a solid block. And because each brick has a unique sequences, it only sticks to certain neighbours, and occupies a set position in the block.

This means that Ke can create different shapes by leaving out specific bricks from the full set, like a sculptor removing bits of stone from a block. Starting with a thousand-brick block, he carved out 102 different shapes, with complex features like cavities, tunnels, and embossed symbols. Each one is just 25 nanometres wide in any direction, roughly the size of the smallest viruses.

Kes work, led by Harvards Peng Yin, is the latest achievement from the growing field of DNA origami. Its forefather was the chemist Ned Seeman, who created a DNA cube in 1991 by annealing separate strands together. He followed this with a simple tubes and lattices, but his technique was laborious and inefficient.

Paul Rothemund greatly improved it in 2006. He showed that you can fold a long 7,000-letter strand of viral DNA into a specific shape by using hundreds of shorter snippets. These match different part of the viruss genome and staple it into place. Mix the strands togetherthe long scaffold and short staplesand they spontaneously fold into the right shape. Rothemund and others used the origami technique to create miniature maps, smiley faces, the word NED (in honour of Seeman), and more elaborate shapes like boxes.

Last year, Yins team broke off from the scaffold-and-staples tradition. I wrote about their work for Nature News:

Bryan Wei and his colleagues make shapes out of single strands of DNA just 42 letters long. Each strand is unique, and folds to form a rectangular tile. When mixed, neighbouring tiles stick to each other in a brick-wall pattern, and shorter boundary tiles lock the edges in place.

In their simplest configuration, the tiles produce a solid 64-by-103-nanometre rectangle, but Wei and his team can create more complex shapes by leaving out specific tiles. Using this strategy, they created 107 two-dimensional shapes, including letters, numbers, Chinese characters, geometric shapes and symbols. They also produced tubes and rectangles of different sizes, including one consisting of more than 1,000 tiles.

The team designed a robot to pick the tiles. The desired shape is drawn using a graphical interface, and the robot picks out and mixes the required strands. It can produce 48 shapes in as many hours. Millions of shapes can be crafted from the same set of tiles simply by leaving some out. Once you have a pre-synthesized library, you dont need any new DNA designs, says Yin. You just pick your molecules.

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DNA Lego bricks produce nano-sculptures

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