UNC Research’s Alyssa LeFaro visited the Freeman Lab to find out about Dr. Freeman’s young, yet illustrious career at UNC Chapel Hill. In the article, Building Living Materials, they look at inspiration, new tech, and trailblazing through her lab in the Applied Physical Sciences department:

“Let me show you an example.”

Ronit Freeman stops mid-interview to have her research operations manager, Ana Sanchez, wheel a small table into her office. Sitting on top of it is a bowl of water, into which Sanchez promptly dumps a cupful of cut-up green drinking straws. Freeman dips her finger in and swirls the water around and around.

“Watch what happens,” she instructs, excitedly.

Surprisingly, the straws begin to interact. They stick together, sometimes end-to-end and other times side-to-side. The more Freeman stirs the water in the bowl, the more they seem to attract to one another.

Continue to UNC Research Stories to read the full article