High-sensitivity electronic Stark spectrometer featuring a laser-driven light source.

We report developmental details of a high-sensitivity Stark absorption spectrometer featuring a laser-driven light source. The light source exhibits intensity fluctuations of ∼0.3% over timescales ranging from 1 min to 12 h, minimal drift (≤0.1%/h), and very little 1/f noise at frequencies greater than 200 Hz, which are comparable to or better than an arc-driven light source. Additional features of the spectrometer include balanced detection with multiplex sampling, which yielded lower noise in A, and constant wavelength or wavenumber (energy) spectral bandpass modes. We achieve noise amplitudes of ∼7 × 10-4 and ∼6 × 10-6 in measurements of single A and ΔA spectra (with 92 data points) taking ∼7 and ∼19 min, respectively.

Quantum noise minimization in transistor amplifiers.

General quantum restrictions on the noise performance of linear transistor amplifiers are used to identify the region in parameter space where the quantum-limited performance is achievable and to construct a practical procedure for approaching it experimentally using only the knowledge of directly measurable quantities: the gain, (differential) conductance, and the output noise. A specific example of resonant barrier transistors is discussed.

Generalized constraints on quantum amplification.

We derive quantum constraints on the minimal amount of noise added in linear amplification involving input or output signals whose component operators do not necessarily have c-number commutators, as is the case for fermion currents. This is a generalization of constraints derived for the amplification of bosonic fields whose components possess c-number commutators.

DNA fuel for free-running nanomachines.

We describe kinetic control of DNA hybridization: loop complexes are used to inhibit the hybridization of complementary oligonucleotides; rationally designed DNA catalysts are shown to be effective in promoting their hybridization. This is the basis of a strategy for using DNA as a fuel to drive free-running artificial molecular machines.

Using DNA to construct and power a nanoactuator.

A DNA-based molecular machine is described which has two movable arms that are pushed apart when a strand of DNA, the fuel strand, hybridizes with a single-stranded region of the molecular machine. Through the process of branch migration, a second strand of DNA complementary to the fuel strand is able to remove the fuel strand from the molecular machine, restoring it to its original configuration. Compared with the molecular tweezers we had previously devised, this machine, which we call a nanoactuator, has a reduced tendency to form dimers.

A DNA-fuelled molecular machine made of DNA.

Molecular recognition between complementary strands of DNA allows construction on a nanometre length scale. For example, DNA tags may be used to organize the assembly of colloidal particles, and DNA templates can direct the growth of semiconductor nanocrystals and metal wires. As a structural material in its own right, DNA can be used to make ordered static arrays of tiles, linked rings and polyhedra. The construction of active devices is also possible--for example, a nanomechanical switch, whose conformation is changed by inducing a transition in the chirality of the DNA double helix. Melting of chemically modified DNA has been induced by optical absorption, and conformational changes caused by the binding of oligonucleotides or other small groups have been shown to change the enzymatic activity of ribozymes. Here we report the construction of a DNA machine in which the DNA is used not only as a structural material, but also as 'fuel'. The machine, made from three strands of DNA, has the form of a pair of tweezers. It may be closed and opened by addition of auxiliary strands of 'fuel' DNA; each cycle produces a duplex DNA waste product.

DNA implementation of addition in which the input strands are separate from the operator strands.

A DNA representation of Boolean logic for which the input strands are separate from the operator strands is described and used to construct a two-bit DNA adder. The successful operation of the adder for several test inputs demonstrates that digital molecular computation with a complexity of order 30 gates is feasible.

Article for analog vector algebra computation.

We introduce the concept of an analog neural network represented by chemical operations performed on strands of DNA. This new type of DNA computing has the advantage that it should be fault tolerant and thus more immune to DNA hybridization errors than a Boolean DNA computer. We describe a particular set of DNA operations to effect the interconversion of electrical and DNA data and to represent the Hopfield associative memory and the feed-forward neural network of Rumelhart et al. We speculate that networks containing as many as 10(9) neurons might be feasible.

Measurement of the force-velocity relation for growing microtubules.

Forces generated by protein polymerization are important for various forms of cellular motility. Assembling microtubules, for instance, are believed to exert pushing forces on chromosomes during mitosis. The force that a single microtubule can generate was measured by attaching microtubules to a substrate at one end and causing them to push against a microfabricated rigid barrier at the other end. The subsequent buckling of the microtubules was analyzed to determine both the force on each microtubule end and the growth velocity. The growth velocity decreased from 1.2 micrometers per minute at zero force to 0.2 micrometer per minute at forces of 3 to 4 piconewtons. The force-velocity relation fits well to a decaying exponential, in agreement with theoretical models, but the rate of decay is faster than predicted.

Assembly and positioning of microtubule asters in microfabricated chambers.

Intracellular organization depends on a variety of molecular assembly processes; while some of these have been studied in simplified cell-free systems, others depend on the confined geometry of cells and cannot be reconstructed using bulk techniques. To study the latter processes in vitro, we fabricated microscopic chambers that simulate the closed environment of cells. We used these chambers to study the positioning of microtubule asters. Microtubule assembly alone, without the action of molecular motors, is sufficient to position asters. Asters with short microtubules move toward the position expected from symmetry; however, once the microtubules become long enough to buckle, symmetry is broken. Calculations and experiments show that the bending-energy landscape has multiple minima. Microtubule dynamic instability modifies the landscape over time and allows asters to explore otherwise inaccessible configurations.