image: When polarized light interacts with liquid crystal molecules one obtains regions of dark and light that indicate the average direction of the molecules in a specific region, and these images are known as the optical texture. This image shows the optical texture of the chiral nematic phase of certain short DNA segments stacked end-to-end. 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." view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Giuliano Zanchetta, University of Milan