As I was explaining the blog that I write to my therapist, he became more intrigued about my knowledge of science in general. After some conversation regarding my background and the general area of expertise I studied - which happens to be Chemistry, he asked if I knew how DNA looked. DNA or Deoxyribonucleic acid is what makes up the genetic code for living organisms, and it’s made up of four major molecules, these being Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, and Guanine. There is also a phosphate group that is responsible for holding these molecules together and serves as the backbone for all of DNA. My therapist asked if DNA looks like how they portray it in books and classes, with the blocks of Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, and Guanine. I told him that although it’s a great descriptor and portrayal for teaching as well as learning about DNA, it’s not really a great visual analogy, nor is it suitable for scientists actively working with it either.

Part of the problem is that DNA, and RNA both are way too small to capture with the human eye. In fact, in the laboratory, an electron microscope is primarily used so that biologist and other research scientists are able to determine the exact structure of DNA. We’re talking in the angstrom region, or around 1 or 2 nm in length for a single strand of DNA or RNA pair. For reference, some of the smallest microchip with transistors that are being made for our computers are in the 5-7nm range, with Angstrom length transistors coming in the near future. Part of the fascinating thing about DNA, I think, is the way that it can dictate protein folding and other nature of biological makeup. When I was briefly working in a biology laboratory, the primary thing I learned that has stood with me was PCR or Polymerase Chain Reaction, which is a method of amplifying or duplicating a certain strand of DNA many times over. The method makes it easier for scientists to work with DNA as it not only grows the quantity of the same DNA but it also gives more copies of it, making it less likely that the sample is lost entirely.

In fact, if you have taken a COVID-19 test, it is likely that your DNA has undergone some form of PCR or nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT), so that your doctor and the laboratories they work with can get an accurate diagnosis of the status in infection. PCR isn’t the only thing that biologist and engineers have created to manipulate DNA. There is also the CRISPR technology or “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” (although no one will expect you to memorize that), which is often used to manipulate and selectively modify the DNA in our genome. This type of technology has been used to advance science in cancer research, create allergy free foods, and even stranger things like selective pet breeding.

For me, as a lover of chemistry and physics primarily, I see it more for the potential in protein folding. I think it’s incredible how the DNA, as long as it is, is able to so seamlessly fold itself within every molecule in our organism as a market of our data. When we look at structures like black holes, we are seeing a collapse or fold of the space time manifold, and one of the reasons the idea of protein folding has been surfacing in my mind, is that I want to understand if there are any relations with these tiny structures in the way that the universe has formed. As a physicist it is easy to run out of ideas that might give about some secrets of the universe. However, I am a strong believer that everything kind of comes around or forms a loop in itself, therefore I see a lot of potential in learning about space in the way that the body, and biology as a whole use these structures to manipulate chemicals and other molecules. Let me know down below how you think we can use these small technologies to bridge the gap in some of the physics knowledge that is yet to come.