it's a trying world down there in the nucleus (unless you're mitochondrial DNA--they live on easy street). DNA isn't having an emotional day. It's just our old friend Brownian motion--he never stops moving in a fluctuating random dance. Also, Brownian motion might be a girl, no one knows for sure.

Well, Adam E. Cohen decided to do something about it. Yes, researchers have had some success in countering that infernal microscopic jiggle, but Dr. Cohen and his colleagues at Harvard been trying to look closely at the dynamics of DNA trapped inside of a microfluidic channel.

At the Industrial Physics Forum (part of the AVS annual meeting) in Boston last Monday, Dr. Cohen presented a lecture entitled "Single Molecule Imaging, Anti-Brownian Electrokinetic Trap."

Cohen is working with William E. Moerner at Stanford to discover the shape of a DNA molecule, how it deviates from an average shape, and the dynamics of how it moves from shape to shape. The results look very similar to different energy levels of electron orbits. I think. Maybe. Don't quote me on that. To see the pretty pictures yourself, take a look at this article published in PNAS last year.

Biomicrofluidics is sponsoring the 2009 Conference on Advances in Microfluidics and Nanofluidics in Hong Kong on January 5-7, 2009.

The first annual conference is an international and interdisciplinary conference with special focus on research activities in the Pacific Rim. It will be held at the beautiful campus of HKUST by the bay.

The objective of the conference is to provide a forum for researchers in this interdisciplinary subject area to disseminate recent theoretical/methodological developments and technological applications as well as a platform for fostering closer networks and collaborative ties. It is anticipated that this inaugural conference will be the first of a series or regular conferences along this theme.

The organizing committee is therefore inviting submissions of abstracts falling within the broad scope of micro/nanofluidic science and engineering. Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit a full contribution of their work for review and publication in one of two special issues of Biomicrofluidics.

The last decade has seen exponential growths in microfluidic and nanofluidic research in Asia, driven by robust funding with expectation that it will spur a large Asian biotechnology industry.

The intent of this conference is to bring researchers of different disciplines and nationalities together, which is necessary for the Asian community to advance to the next level. It is also an opportunity to expose Asian research achievements to leaders in the field and for Asian students to interact with them. Biomicrofluidics, an American Institute of Physics journal, will be the affiliated journal to facilitate the missions of this conference, and subsequent follow-up conferences.

The invited speakers are leading microfluidics and nanofluidics researchers in Physics, Chemistry and the various engineering disciplines. It is the hope of the organization committee that this will be the first of a regular Pacific Rim conference on the topics.

We cordialy invite you to join the conference and look forward to see you in Hong Kong from January 5th to 7th, 2009.