Like silicon for electronics, DNA is the revolution-enabling material for biotechnology. It is chemically stable, readily produced with high purity, and, when spiked with well-chosen defects, its predictable structure supports a range of devices. Also like silicon, the DNA-based devices of today are being engineered on the nanoscale, where technologically relevant material properties are often dominated by aspects that are negligible in bulk. As a prime example, short (~100 bp) dsDNA are able to cyclize much more readily than the well-studied stiffness of long (~10 kbp) dsDNA would seem to allow. Years of debate and study suggest kinking of the double helix is the explanation. We have built a DNA device that allows these such bent states to reconfigure a micron-scale structure, so that fluorescence videomicroscopy can reveal the bend angles and their stiffness. We find the kinked states are meta-stable, with intermediate states that require twisting. Prospects for using kinks as the conformational change that animates a DNA-machine will be discussed.

Ultracold molecules are an emerging platform for quantum science that combines the techniques of atomic physics pioneered over the last half century, including quantum-state control and single particle detection/manipulation, with molecules' inherently rich internal structure.  I will present new efforts at UChicago toward building novel quantum phases of matter using the emerging technology of highly polar molecules cooled to nanokelvin temperatures. Specifically, we hope to realize exotic topological superfluids built from interacting gases of KAg molecules, which could feature extraordinary characteristics such as resistance to disorder, frictionless flow, and the emergence of Majorana particles. Another complementary goal is to leverage the strong dipole-dipole interactions to pioneer novel ways to load molecules into defect-free, low-entropy arrays for realizations of lattice spin models.

Replaced by Center for Living Systems student-organized special lecture.

Replaced by Center for Living Systems student-organized special lecture.

Replaced by Center for Living Systems student-organized special lecture.