On Sep. 9, 2024, a Princeton University team announced they had developed a way to probe chromosomes and quantify their mechanical properties, a way to rearrange life’s basic tapestry, bending DNA strands back on themselves to reveal the material nature of the genome.

The answer to the material question, according to their findings, is that in some ways the chromosome acts like an elastic material and in other ways it acts like a fluid. By leveraging that insight in exacting detail, the team was able to physically manipulate DNA in new and precisely controlled ways. The findings were published in the journal Cell.