Speakers Paul Rothemund: DNA origamist
Paul Rothemund folds DNA into shapes and patterns. Which is a simple enough thing to say, but the process he has developed has vast implications for computing and manufacturing -- allowing us to create things we can now only dream of.
Why you should listen to him:
Paul Rothemund won a MacArthur grant this year for a fairly mystifying study area: "folding DNA." It brings up the question: Why fold DNA? The answer is -- because the power to manipulate DNA in this way could change the way we make things at a very basic level.
Rothemund's work combines the study of self-assembly (watch the TEDTalks from Neil Gershenfeld and Saul Griffith for more on this) with the research being done in DNA nanotechnology -- and points the way toward self-assembling devices at microscale, making computer memory, for instance, smaller, faster and maybe even cheaper.
Quotes by Paul Rothemund
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“There are many ways of casting molecular spells using DNA. What we really want to do in the end is learn how to program self-assembly so that we can build anything.”
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Paul Rothemund casts a spell with DNA
- 04:59 Posted: Nov 2007
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Paul Rothemund details DNA folding
- 16:24 Posted: Sep 2008
Paul Rothemund on the Web
Related Speakers
Conferences
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- TED2007
- TED2008