The ultimate goal of this research is to characterize the forces directing nucleic acid chemistry. The conformations, thermodynamics and dynamics of oligonucleotide double helices will be investigated as a function of environemtn. A versatile, sensitive laser temperature-jump instrument will be developed to allow dynamics to be measured from 1 ms to 100 ms. The results will help us understand the details of processes such as protein synthesis, gene regulation, and drug binding to nucleic acids.