We've reported on the use of nanotechnology to develop better
composites, fault-detecting paint, and energy-harvesting
wearable fabric. It's also a methodology for developing devices
that assemble themselves. Though many of those efforts have used
carbon nanotubes, Harvard University's Wyss Institute for
Biologically Inspired Engineering has harnessed DNA to create
self-assembling nanodevices. The emerging field of DNA
nanotechnology is being explored for building tiny, programmable
structures for diverse applications. So far, most research has
focused on what's called DNA origami. This method uses a long
biological strand of DNA as a backbone. Smaller strands are
bound to its segments to create different shapes. Single-
stranded tiles (SSTs) made of short strands of interlocking DNA
can be programmed to assemble themselves into precisely designed
shapes, including letters, numbers, and emoticons. (Source: Wyss
Institute at Harvard University) Researchers at the Wyss
Institute took a different approach. A team