Science Daily is reporting this week that researchers at Duke University have developed a method for printing finely detailed microscopic images with enzymes, rather than inks. Science Daily article The technology could become another tool in the arsenal of the high-security printing and brand protection industry:

"With all the advances in printing technology in recent years, the latest may rise to the top of a list that would make Gutenberg gasp....Eric J. Toone and Robert L. Clark and colleagues point out that so-called microcontact printing has found wide application for rapidly transferring high-resolution images onto large surfaces. But current nanoprinting technology relies on the diffusion of ink, and cannot reproduce details smaller than one hundred nanometers in diameter - about 400 times smaller than the width of a human hair."

So-called "immobilized biocatalytic lithography" Journal of Chemistry article is an application of soft lithography (also nanolithography or micro-stamping), which creates "nano- to millimeter-scale structures and allows nano-scale control of chemistries on flat, uneven, patterned, or curved materials, including metals, polymers, oxides, and ceramics," according to Nano-Terra, a nano- and micro-technology development company in Cambridge, MA. (A detailed description of the process, including a helpful diagram, can be found at the Nano-Terra website.)

The new technology reportedly involves coating a nano-"stamp" with a protein that speeds up chemical reactions:

"The enzyme then digests away a layer on the surface, leaving behind an imprint almost like an old-fashioned rubber stamp. Because no diffusion of ink is involved..., the resolution of microcontact printed images is about one-hundredfold greater than possible with conventional technology. The technique may point the way toward faster, less expensive methods of nanolithography, which could be used to create complex structures for micromachines, biosensors, and other nanoscale devices...."