Mutations that affect the opening and closing of ion channels in cell membranes are associated with disease. Defects in other properties of these channels can also cause ion leakage, with equally devastating consequences.

Insect viruses that cause polyhedrosis produce infectious microcrystals within a cell. These inclusions were used in a study that pushed the state of the crystallographic art to explain their exceptional stability.

Photonic lattices are materials specially designed to cage light. By shaking the mesh of the cage, we can see how light, initially passing freely, finds its room for manoeuvre progressively restricted.