Scientists have taken a step closer to replicating nature s processes of self-assembly. The study describes the synthetic construction of a tiny, self-assembled crystal known as a pyrochlore, which bears unique optical properties. The advance provides a steppingstone to the eventual construction of sophisticated, self-assembling devices at the nanoscale roughly the size of a single virus.
Many biological structures of impressive beauty and sophistication arise through processes of self-assembly. Indeed, the natural world is teeming with intricate and useful forms that come together from many constituent parts, .