by Playfuls Staff |
7th September 2006
U.S. nanoscientists say they've transformed a molecule of chlorophyll-a from spinach into a complex biological switch.[more]
The study by Ohio University physicists Saw-Wai Hla and Violeta Iancu is said to have possible future applications for green energy, technology and medicine.
The study offers the first detailed image of chloropyhll-a -- the main ingredient in the photosynthesis process -- and shows how scientists can use new technology to manipulate the configuration of the spinach molecule in four different arrangements.
The research was funded by Ohio University's Nanobiotechnology Initiative and the U.S. Department of Energy. Hla is a member of the university's Quantitative Biology Institute and Nanoscale & Quantum Phenomena Institute. Iancu is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Physics and Astronomy
The study appears in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
© 2006 UPI
