Self-assembly is the process that built up life and its surrounding, atom-by-atom. Now, a team\u00a0of scientists in Turkey has demonstrated the fundamental principles of a universal self-assembly\u00a0process acting on a range of materials starting from a few atoms-large quantum dots up to\u00a0nearly 100 trillion atoms-large human cells.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
For years, researchers have searched for the working principles of self-assembly that can build\u00a0a cell (complex biological organism) as well as a crystal (far simpler inorganic material) in the\u00a0same way. Self-assembly is the process that built up life and its surrounding, atom-by-atom. Now, a team\u00a0of scientists in Turkey has demonstrated the fundamental principles of a universal self-assembly\u00a0process acting on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2020"],"yoast_head":"\n
Now, a team of scientists in Turkey has demonstrated the fundamental principles of a universal\u00a0self-assembly process acting on a range of materials starting from a few atoms-large quantum\u00a0dots up to nearly 100 trillion atoms-large human cells. Their method is highlighted in Nature\u00a0Physics.\u00a0
\u201cTo initiate self-assembly, either you force the system to deliver a specific outcome, or you use\u00a0its inner dynamics to your advantage for universal outcomes. We followed the second\u00a0approach,<\/em>\u201d says Dr. Serim Ilday of Bilkent University-UNAM, who lead the study.
The researchers not only demonstrated the self-assembly of simple as well as complex\u00a0constitutes that are more than four orders of magnitude different in size and mass. They all\u00a0come together following a sigmoid function, also known as the S-curve. Curiously, they also\u00a0observed that the individual deviations from the S-curves follow the statistics of the Tracy-Widom distribution, which manifests in diverse, social, economic, and physical systems.
\u201cSerim and I were attending a math seminar, where we first saw this particular distribution.\u00a0Serim looked at me and said, \u2018that\u2019s it; we need to search for it,\u2019 and we did.<\/em>\u201d says Dr. F. \u00d6mer\u00a0Ilday of Bilkent University-UNAM, Physics, and Electrical and Electronics Engineering, co-author\u00a0of the paper. The seminar was given by Dr. G\u00f6khan Y\u0131ld\u0131r\u0131m of Bilkent University-Mathematics,\u00a0another co-author, says, \u201cAfter the seminar, they approached me, the idea was fascinating, and\u00a0we started working on it immediately.<\/em>\u201d Dr. Ghaith Makey, the first author of the paper, adds,\u00a0\u201cWhat motivates us nowadays is to predict and study new examples of systems in Tracy-Widom\u00a0universality, and understand why it manifests in very many different systems.<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0
The team further demonstrated how their method could be useful for practical applications.\u00a0\u201cThe possibilities are endless. For instance, an unknown infection is detected at a hospital\u2019s\u00a0ICU. Instead of waiting for hours or days to identify the culprit pathogen, within minutes, you\u00a0can take a sample, add candidate drugs, see if they put an end to the infection.<\/em>\u201d says Dr. E.\u00a0Doruk Engin of Ankara University-Biotechnology Institute. \u201cIt was unbelievable to see how easily\u00a0living organisms could be manipulated within seconds,<\/em>\u201d says Dr. \u00d6zg\u00fcr \u015eahin of Bilkent\u00a0University-Molecular Biology and Genetics, and also of the University of South Carolina. Dr.\u00a0Hilmi Volkan Demir of Bilkent University-UNAM, Physics, and Electrical and Electronics\u00a0Engineering and also of NTU Singapore, a co-author of the paper, adds \u201csuch instant control\u00a0over tiny speedy quantum matter is in many ways beyond the capabilities of current technology.\u00a0It can have a real impact on nanotechnology.<\/em>\u201d
Researchers emphasize that this is by no means the end of the story, that self-assembly\u00a0research has a long and rough road ahead in discovering and practicing mother nature\u2019s\u00a0principles. Dr. Serim Ilday adds, \u201cPossible practical uses aside, our method is a great tool for\u00a0exploring the physics of how driven systems evolve far from equilibrium. This includes\u00a0epidemics; in fact, our preliminary analysis of COVID-19 data suggests that its fluctuations may\u00a0be following the Tracy-Widom statistics just like our system.<\/em>\u201d. Dr. F. \u00d6mer Ilday adds, \u201cMore\u00a0interestingly, our analytical model fits COVID data better than the S-curve. Seeing all these, we\u00a0decided to investigate the physics of the pandemic promptly<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"