The "double helix" of DNA refers to the physical shape of the molecule, an antiparallel coil. Imagine a zipper, wound up in a coil like an old-style telephone cord. In this analogy nucleotides are ...

But James Watson and Francis Crick's claim was a valid one, for they had in fact discovered the structure of DNA, the chemical that encodes instructions for building and replicating almost all ...

An important specialty in this field—and a signature area of study at the University at Albany's RNA Institute—is DNA nanotechnology, wherein the base pairs that comprise DNA molecules are ...

Linus Pauling discovered that many proteins take the shape of an alpha helix, spiraled like a spring coil. In 1950, biochemist Erwin Chargaff found that the arrangement of nitrogen bases in DNA ...

he wrote in an email to his advisors in March 2012. In the end, he concluded that roughly 178 million years ago, some fern took in a bit of hornwort DNA and boom, an entire lineage became poised to ...

To design a DNA structure, scientists start with a desired shape or pattern and then determine the complementary DNA sequences that will allow the DNA strands to self-assemble into that structure.

Essentially DNA origami enables long strands of DNA to fold, through self-assembly, into any desired shape. (In the 2006 paper, Rothemund famously used the technique to create miniature DNA smiley ...