Paul Alivisatos of UC-Berkeley will describe how nanocrystals of semiconductor material have been incorporated into LEDs, transistors, and cell surfaces. Cees Dekker of the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands will explain how sturdy, versatile carbon nanotubes may become an important component of molecular electronics. But strands of DNA are also handy props for scientists and engineers to use in designing electronic products, including biosensors. DNA's ability to self assemble and to recognize sequences of base pairs are the important properties. DNA has also been used as a wire in its own right.
Fink finds that linear DNA ropes are good conductors.
Decoding the electrical language of the nervous system is a major pursuit of biophysicists. Researchers at session Y3 will present intriguing advances in discovering and deciphering the neural signals that allow certain creatures to locate prey. John Hopfield of Princeton will give an overview of how living things exploit the peculiarities of nerve cells for efficient computation. Every few months, consumers can buy higher-capacity drives at the same low price. But in just a few disk-drive generations, the recording head of a hard drive will be only a few nanometers from the disk surface, causing the head to contact the disk frequently.