Biaxial Alignment Control of Guanine Crystals by Diamagnetic Orientation

The present study provides evidence that a kind of nucleic acid base crystal, guanine crystal, shows a distinct magnetic orientation. Under the condition where the guanine crystal boards were lying on the glass surface due to gravity, the boards gradually oriented their length to the applied horizontal magnetic fields of 400 mT. On the other hand, the vertical magnetic fields parallel to Earth's gravity caused their width to be oriented along the applied magnetic fields. Moreover, combining both vertical and horizontal magnetic fields produced a rapid alignment of the length to the horizontal magnetic fields. (C) 2013 The Japan Society of Applied Physics