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Liquid Crystal Phases from Short Rods 6 (of 7)

Caption: Coexisting isotropic (black) and chiral nematic domains of certain short DNA segments stacked end-to-end. The image is viewed between crossed polarizer and analyzer, showing the color-selective optical Bragg reflection of red light from the helical precession of the local molecular axis. This image relates to an article that appeared in the November 23, 2007, issue of the journal Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. Michi Nakata and colleagues at University of Colorado, Boulder, in Boulder, Co., was titled "End-to-End Stacking and Liquid Crystal Condensation of 6- to 20 -- Base Pair DNA Duplexes."

Credit: Image courtesy of Michi Nakata, University of Colorado

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