DNA molecules can detect spin

Professor Ron Naaman from the Weizmann Institute in Israel and scientists in Germany discovered that biological molecules in DNA can detect spin states in atoms. The researchers fabricated self-assembling, single layers of DNA attached to a gold substrate. The DNA was exposed to electrons - and the DNA molecules reacted strongly with electrons at one spin, and hardly at all with electrons with a different spin.

Naaman says that it turns out that DNA is a great 'spin filter' - and this could have applications in both biomedical research and spintronics.