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Life: News from Nature, the international journal of science: In brief

Posted on: Thursday, 21 August 2003, 06:00 CDT

* Researchers in Paris have coaxed two helium atoms together to create a super-sized molecule up to 100 nanometres long, ending years of argument over whether such large molecules are possible. Helium atoms don't like to form bonds, but under some circumstances can be brought together to form diatomic (He 2 ) molecules, says Jeremie Leonard, a graduate student at the Ecole Normale Superieure. To create the molecules, Leonard and his colleagues cooled helium gas in a magnetic atom trap to extremely low temperatures and exposed it to infra-red light.

* Noughts and crosses players can now test their wits against a DNA computer, Maya, which is undefeated after more than 100 games against human opponents. Maya consists of nine wells that are arranged in the 3x3 pattern of a noughts and crosses board and contain various combinations of DNA enzymes . Maya signals a move by glowing fluorescently in one of the wells, whereas the human player moves by adding a short DNA strand to the wells. Maya analyses the DNA strand selected by the human and makes its own move by cutting the DNA in the appropriate well, which triggers the fluorescence.

* Chemical element 110 , discovered in 1994, finally has a name. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry approved the moniker darmstadtium , and gave the element the symbol Ds. The name honours the lab in Darmstadt, Germany, where it was made.

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