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Article: Integrated circuit: genetic screening. (discovery of the ability of electrons to travel down DNA double strands could revolutionize genetic testing) (American Association for the Advancement of Science conference)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- February 25, 1995
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AS EVERY schoolboy knows, DNA stores information; microchips process it. At the moment there is no easy way for information to flow from the one to the other. If one of the more intriguing talks at the AAAS bears fruit, that could change. A discovery about the physical properties of DNA made by Thomas Meade of the California Institute of Technology could revolutionise the business of genetic testing.
Electrons normally have little joy trying to travel along chains of atoms. This is true for strands of protein, and for single strands of DNA. But when Dr Meade tested a double strand of DNA--the mutually entwined double helix of a thousand logos--he found that electrons ...