Playing tricks with designer "Atoms"

Macromolecules or colloids in solution can serve as large-scale models for atoms and simple molecules. But as Frenkel explains in his Perspective, this is not all. Colloidal suspensions can also form new states of matter. He highlights the reports by Velikov et al. and Pham et al., who demonstrate how the properties of such suspensions can be tuned in unprecedented ways.