"Droplets of DNA" That Move with Light — Tiny Machines Made of Molecules

Explanation

A team at the Institute of Science Tokyo used DNA whose properties change when exposed to light to create a molecular structure that behaves like a "droplet of liquid." DNA is known as the blueprint of living things, but by making use of its property of "binding only to a specific partner," it can also become a material whose shape and movement can be designed at the molecular level. Because this structure gathers together and separates in response to a light switch, it is expected to find applications as a "light-driven molecular machine" in medicine, such as delivering drugs within the body, and in nanotechnology.

Just as information technology classes teach that information can be represented using "0s and 1s," the interesting idea behind this research is writing a "molecular program" using combinations of DNA's four letters (A, T, G, and C).