How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA

[vectro]

Someone I know from another forum posted this and I had to repeat it here. These waves are used in airport security scanners, but that's not entirely what the article is about. It's about the effects on DNA of those types of waves in general.

Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA

Alexandrov and co have created a model to investigate how THz fields interact with double-stranded DNA and what they've found is remarkable. They say that although the forces generated are tiny, resonant effects allow THz waves to unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication. That's a jaw dropping conclusion.

Also this: DNA Breathing Dynamics in the Presence of a Terahertz Field

Hey... BiologyWebmaster.. any comments?

[CheckDavid]

NIce thing that we have a Biology Webmaster in here =D

[vectro]

Yeah. Where is he when we need him? lol

[CheckDavid]

Probably dissecting a rat or something xD