CAN DNA conduct electricity? Some physicists claim it is a superconductor. Others believe it doesn’t conduct electricity at all. And biologists have agonised about how conductivity might affect its function.
A consensus is emerging. Although the much-hyped molecule can transport electrons over a length of a few base pairs, allowing it to deflect oxidative damage away from important sections (Â鶹´«Ã½, 15 March, p 38), it fails to conduct over longer distances. That will dash long-held hopes that the self-replicating molecule could be harnessed to make self-assembling nanowires.
Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, have hammered the final…
