I had been looking at engagement rings for a while, and eventually settled on having one custom made. My fiance is a biology geek who works in medical research and I’m a theatre audio systems technician, working on becoming an electrical engineer. My hope was to find a way to incorporate science into whatever ring I selected, and with a ton of help from my jeweler we came up with this. It took six different models/3D prints to get everything nailed down, but in the end was well worth it.
The ring incorporates a DNA double helix with 11 base pairs per twist. Though my understanding is that 10.5 is the most stable form, some sacrifices had to be made to save the sanity of the jeweler and to make it look symmetrical. For my nerdism I recorded a small message and provided the shop with an image of the waveform. This waveform was cast into the band instead of having an engraving done. To finish it out, the diamond came from her grandmother’s engagement ring. The shop (Mark Michael Designs in Maple Grove, Minn.) made everything in-house, and just gave my fiance a tour of their little manufacturing facilities.
See all of our Valentine’s Day-related content here.
ADVERTISEMENT
