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Nanopores

The art of sucking spaghetti

Biomolecules are notorious for their unpredictable flexibility. Some of the smallest nanopores ever created are being used to manipulate individual DNA molecules, with far-from simple results.

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Figure 1: Scientists wishing to straighten out elastic polymers, such as DNA, require very tiny pores a few nanometres in diameter.

Image: Dana Sigall, www.sigall.com.

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Austin, R. The art of sucking spaghetti. Nature Mater 2, 567–568 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat962

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