ABSTRACT
Nucleic probes are chemical compounds that can bind to segments of RNA or DNA of varying length. The forces that make such a binding possible are essentially electrostatic, with hydrogen bonds the most important. For example, in a cell, the DNA strands are linked together by hydrogen bonds formed exclusively between the so-called complementary bases, namely, adenine and thymine on the one hand and cytosine and guanine on the other hand (Figure 2.1).
