DNA is directly photographed for the first time

Merlin5 · 3 Dec 2012 at 22:56

Found this pretty interesting.

Link

Fifty-nine years after James Watson and Francis Crick deduced the double-helix structure of DNA, a scientist has captured the first direct photograph of the twisted ladder that props up life.

Enzo Di Fabrizio, a physics professor at Magna Graecia University in Catanzaro, Italy, snapped the picture using an electron microscope.

delta0 · 3 Dec 2012 at 23:03

Merlin5 said:
Found this pretty interesting.

Link

Fifty-nine years after James Watson and Francis Crick deduced the double-helix structure of DNA, a scientist has captured the first direct photograph of the twisted ladder that props up life.

Enzo Di Fabrizio, a physics professor at Magna Graecia University in Catanzaro, Italy, snapped the picture using an electron microscope.

(A micrograph rather than photograph.)

Good effort that man.

Malevolence · 3 Dec 2012 at 23:07

They built a nanoscopic landscape of extremely water-repellant silicon pillars. When they added a solution that contained strands of DNA into this scene, the water quickly evaporated and left behind cords of bare DNA that stretched like tightropes between the tiny mesas.

They then shone beams of electrons through holes in the silicon bed, and captured high-resolution images of the illuminated molecules.

Mightily impressive. Would I be pushing it if I were to say Nobel quality work? Anyway, that said, I bet they couldn't put a Fruit Pastille in their mouths without chewing.

Monkey00 · 3 Dec 2012 at 23:09

Incredible. DNA, something you can't see but creates all life in a photo. Suck that for proof religion.

Woden · 3 Dec 2012 at 23:17

That really is awesome. Not just that its a picture of mother loving DNA, but that we are just now getting technologies that let us see things that were theorised decades ago.

yer_averagejoe · 3 Dec 2012 at 23:22

First image?

'Photo 51' was taken by Rosalind Franklin (Her efforts alongside Watson and Crick often go unmentioned simply because she was not eligible to receive a Nobel prize alongside them, due to her being dead at the time of award) and her grad student.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18041884

Woden · 3 Dec 2012 at 23:50

yer_averagejoe said:
First image?

'Photo 51' was taken by Rosalind Franklin (Her efforts alongside Watson and Crick often go unmentioned simply because she was not eligible to receive a Nobel prize alongside them, due to her being dead at the time of award) and her grad student.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18041884

No one has claimed it to be the first image. It is the first direct photo(micro)graph.

-westy- · 3 Dec 2012 at 23:56

yer_averagejoe said:
First image?

'Photo 51' was taken by Rosalind Franklin (Her efforts alongside Watson and Crick often go unmentioned simply because she was not eligible to receive a Nobel prize alongside them, due to her being dead at the time of award) and her grad student.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18041884

As Woden said, it's the first direct photograph, Photo 51 is an X-ray diffraction

/\ndy · 4 Dec 2012 at 00:05

nice embed op

Sgt Tackleberry · 4 Dec 2012 at 00:05

Awesome

Merlin5 · 4 Dec 2012 at 15:09

Malevolence said:
Anyway, that said, I bet they couldn't put a Fruit Pastille in their mouths without chewing.

That would be asking too much.

silvercut · 4 Dec 2012 at 15:12

I guess spirals are a good way of compressing a long string

mrk · 4 Dec 2012 at 15:15

And all they got was a black and white image? Pah!

Amazing stuff though and this guy has an amazing name. Reminds me of a Ferarri being driven on a bed of fabric softener

Daze · 4 Dec 2012 at 15:17

Malevolence said:
Mightily impressive. Would I be pushing it if I were to say Nobel quality work? Anyway, that said, I bet they couldn't put a Fruit Pastille in their mouths without chewing.

Not sure, there's only one thing you can really do with a rowntree's fruit pastille.

silvercut · 4 Dec 2012 at 15:18

taking photos aint nobel winning material pal, maybe an award for good photography... other than that nufink

Woden · 4 Dec 2012 at 15:19

silvercut said:
taking photos aint nobel winning material pal, maybe an award for good photography... other than that nufink

You don't quite understand the significance of the picture, or how it was taken, do you?

Cosimo · 4 Dec 2012 at 15:20

That is impressive.

silvercut · 4 Dec 2012 at 15:22

Woden said:
You don't quite understand the significance of the picture, or how it was taken, do you?

I understand the impressiveness of achieving this feat, but taking pictures don't make it a nobel winner.

delta0 · 4 Dec 2012 at 15:28

The micrograph confirms the theory that DNA is a helix shape. That is extremley significant. Doing this is nothing like taking a picture with a camera. It takes a lot of time, preparation, understanding and then to interpret and present the results.

silvercut · 4 Dec 2012 at 15:35

nobody gets nobel for confirming a theory. Dumbass, because the guy below already got it lmao

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_D._Watson