ScienceDaily: Matter & Energy News

How much information can you get from a speck of purple pigment, no bigger than the diameter of a hair, plucked from an Egyptian portrait that's nearly 2,000 years old? Plenty, according to a new study. Analysis of that speck can teach us about how the pigment was made, what it's made of - and maybe even a little about the people who made it.

The synthesis and self-organization of biological macromolecules is essential for life on earth. Chemists now report the spontaneous emergence of complex ring-shaped macromolecules with low degrees of symmetry in the laboratory.