planning the basement lab

Here is an old, but interesting, article from Scientific American about "how you can carry out the polymerase chain reaction in your kitchen"

and for the hell of it "print your atomic force microscope"

rough DNA buckyball

Not much to say, same overall techniques, but of course there's still a lot to do.

MTF

small pic of the DNA dodecahedron and what's next

You know what's left, right? Yep, the DNA buckyball.

Some regular visitors to this site may be asking, "I wonder whatever happened to that big ol' super-fullerene thing he was working on..."

most of the DNA dodecahedron

Here's some on the DNA dodecahedron (Mao et al. 2008):


Really, the carbon atoms with stretched bonds is definitely the way to go on these geometric projects. They make great templates. Be sure you write that down in your Tips Journal and don't say I never gave you anything.

Yeah, so I back tracked on this too and decided to pre-bend my tiles to the correct angles. I figure the energy minimization process doesn't need any unnecessary problems, except the one other one I'm going to give it...

Yep, just work my way around here...

...and here we are. Don't worry, it should shrink up in minimization...and this allows me to easily scrutinize and adjust the final tile connects.

MTF

decided to start smaller with Chengde Mao's dna polyhedra

Yeah, decided to back up a little on the ambition scale, about a third of the way to be exact. This isn't finished all the way either, but enough for you to get the idea.

MTF

DNA Dodecahedron

Here's the start of this. I built a wire frame out of carbon atoms first to use as a template to hang the 3-star DNA tiles on. Now I am working on a rough placement of tiles. Each of these tiles has nine unpaired bases (three on each arm) in the center to give it flexibility. The amount of flexibility can determine the type of structure that gets created.

Originally my 3-star tiles were designed to make flat 2-d arrays, so the pitch of the arms is not correct to make a dodecahedron. This will be an interesting test of NE1's energy minimization abilities.

hang on, DNA buckyballs

This could potentially interfere with the nano brain project.

when it rains and all...

duroquinone nano brain system model - the start

I'm sure anyone familiar with the site and access to technology news in the last few days would have probably been expecting this. I'm getting a late start on this though. I wanted to start yesterday, but wasn't feeling too hot.

Well, let's see where this goes. So far I am up to my usual MO: read through the article as fast as possible trying to contain the excitement, build something, post something, go back and worry about the details.

thanks for the initial tip, Guy.

MTF

much more from Lee Nelson

http://leenelsonengineer.spaces.live.com/default.aspx

I'm bringing this out of the comments and into a post, what could be considered the first NE1 developer's site.

Thanks Lee!

still here and some original DNA stuff

This evening I got an email from a gentleman that pointed out I haven't posted in a while. I haven't, but that doesn't mean I'm not working on stuff. I have an agreement not post some stuff I'm working on, for a little while anyway. However I believe this is okay, because it falls under original research, might be cutting edge or pure moonshine stuff. I don't know yet. I am taking Paul Rothemund's origami techniques and extending them to 3 dimensions, in a way I don't think anyone else is or planning. Here is a small example:

I know a guy that knows a guy that has an AFM, and the DNA for this would be in my budget. Still a few (tons of) details to work out though.

MTF