DNA as Fiber Optic Cables Edit
Microscopic Light Pipes

Researchers at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden have developed a way to make self-assembling fiber optic cables out of DNA, the very stuff all life is based upon. How did they do it?

According to Bo Albinsson, “(They) used a single type of chromophore called YO as their energy mediator. It has a strong affinity for DNA molecules and readily wedges itself between the ‘rungs’ of bases that make up a DNA strand. The result is strands of DNA with YO chromophores along their length, transforming the strands into photonic wires just a few nanometres in diameter and 20 nanometres long. That’s the right scale to function as interconnects in microchips.”

Because they’re self-assembling, there’s variation in where the chromophores lie, and so the amount of light conducted by these strands isn’t consistent—yet.

Improving on this technology may very well impact solar cell efficiency. For that matter, this technology could conceivably be used anywhere you may need light to run a chemical, electrical or physical process.