4,973 research outputs found
Charge Transfer and Charge Transport on the Double Helix
We present a short review of various experiments that measure charge transfer
and charge transport in DNA. Some general comments are made on the possible
connection between 'chemistry-style' charge transfer experiments that probe
fluorescence quenching and remote oxidative damage and 'physics-style'
measurements that measure transport properties as defined typically in the
solid-state. We then describe measurements performed by our group on the
millimeter wave response of DNA. By measuring over a wide range of humidity
conditions and comparing the response of single strand DNA and double strand
DNA, we show that the appreciable AC conductivity of DNA is not due to photon
assisted hopping between localized states, but instead due to dissipation from
dipole motion in the surrounding water helix.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Modelling bacterial behaviour close to a no-slip plane boundary: the influence of bacterial geometry
We describe a boundary-element method used to model the hydrodynamics of a bacterium propelled by a single helical flagellum. Using this model, we optimize the power efficiency of swimming with respect to cell body and flagellum geometrical parameters, and find that optima for swimming in unbounded fluid and near a no-slip plane boundary are nearly indistinguishable. We also consider the novel optimization objective of torque efficiency and find a very different optimal shape. Excluding effects such as Brownian motion and electrostatic interactions, it is demonstrated that hydrodynamic forces may trap the bacterium in a stable, circular orbit near the boundary, leading to the empirically observable surface accumulation of bacteria. Furthermore, the details and even the existence of this stable orbit depend on geometrical parameters of the bacterium, as described in this article. These results shed some light on the phenomenon of surface accumulation of micro-organisms and offer hydrodynamic explanations as to why some bacteria may accumulate more readily than others based on morphology
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