Almost all modern technology relies on the ability of electrons to carry charge. This is essential for electricity, power transmission, electronic devices, battery storage and many other uses.

However, electrons possess another built-in property beyond charge — spin. Scientists have been trying to harness this property for years, says Paul Stevenson, an assistant professor of physics at Northeastern University, leading to the emergence of a new field called spintronics.

“People have tried to find ways to make new materials that can manipulate this spin property as well as the charge property,” he says.

Surprisingly, research over the last decade suggests that nature may have already mastered what scientists have been trying to engineer. Stevenson explains that biomolecules seem to naturally use this property of electrons.

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Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University