NEWS RELEASES

Researchers from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy have developed synthetic genes that function like the genes in living cells. The artificial genes can build intracellular structures through a cascading sequence that builds self-assembling structures piece by piece. The discovery offers a path toward using a suite of simple building blocks that can be programmed to make complex biomolecular materials, such as nanoscale tubes from DNA tiles. The same components can also be programmed to break up the design for different materials. 

MIT researchers created a synthetic magnetic field using a superconducting quantum processor, which could enable them to precisely study complex phenomena in materials, like phase changes. This could shed light on properties of unique materials that may be used to create faster or more powerful electronics.

In a recent paper in Nature Physics, an international research collaboration used world-class instrumentation at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) to study the exotic nuclide, or rare isotope, chromium-62. Researchers used a gamma-ray spectroscopy experiment in tandem with theoretical models to identify an unexpected variety of shapes in chromium-62. The finding provides more insight into so-called “islands of inversion,” or regions in the nuclear chart where certain nuclides diverge from traditional viewpoints based on the properties of stable nuclei.