Most microscopes can only illuminate objects down to a certain size before tiny features blur together. This blurring is known as the diffraction limit of light. Super-resolution imaging techniques, however, ...

Using advanced imaging techniques and precise microfluidics control to stretch out curly DNA into a straight line, new research demonstrates techniques for stretching and immobilizing DNA with minimum thermal fluctuation to enable detailed analysis. A team at Nagoya University experimented with ways to uncurl a DNA molecule using pressure applied to liquid flowing in a channel, with the pressure flow providing shear force that uncurled the DNA molecule. They found that controlling the flow velocity of the liquid helps fine-tune the shear force applied and allows precise adjustments of the stretch ratio of the DNA.