Covering the bases: Quantum effect may hold promise for low-cost DNA sequencing, sensor applications
Sunday, March 22, 2009 - 14:56
in Physics & Chemistry
A ghostly property of matter, called quantum tunneling, may aid the quest for accurate, low-cost genomic sequencing, according to a new paper in Nature Nanotechnology Letters by Stuart Lindsay and his collaborators at the Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University. Tunneling implies that a particle, say an electron, can cross a barrier, when, according to classical physics, it does not have enough energy to do so.