To develop materials that might transform electronics, researchers have employed DNA to conquer an almost impossible challenge.
Superconductors, which all have no electrical resistance and enable electrons to flow freely, might be the result of such designed materials. That implies, unlike the conventional methods of power transfer, they don’t waste energy or produce heat.
The innovation of a superconductor usable at room temperature, as opposed to the current requirement for exceedingly low or high temperatures, would have far-reaching implications, including the potential for faster computers, smaller digital equipment, magnetically-levitated high-speed train services, and reduced energy consumption.
More than half a century ago, William A. Little, a physicist at Stanford University, hypothesized the existence of such a superconductor. Experts have spent decades attempting to make things happen, yet even after verifying the viability of his theory, they were faced with a problem that looked difficult to tackle. That brings us up to the present.
The modification of carbon nanotube grids is one approach to realizing Little’s concept for a superconductor. However, assembling the lattice with the required precision was hindered by a significant obstacle: regulating chemical reactions all along these nanotubes.
Experts discovered an explanation in the basic building components of life. They utilized DNA, the genetic information that informs living organisms how to behave, and utilized it to orchestrate a chemical process that would bypass the huge impediment to Little’s material. In a nutshell, they employed chemistry to achieve very fine-grained structure engineering, building down to the molecular level. To create Little’s superconductor at ambient temperatures, scientists arranged nanotubes into a lattice.
According to the researchers, their DNA-guided method of lattice production may have many practical uses in the field of physics and other scientific studies. While we frequently conceive of biology employing tools and methods from physics, this study illustrates that now the techniques currently pioneered in biology may truly be applied to challenges in both engineering and physics.
