Spin a merry-go-round fast enough and the riders fly off in all directions. But the spinning particles in a Rice University lab do just the opposite.

Experiments in the Rice lab of chemical engineer Sibani Lisa Biswal show micron-sized spheres coming together under the influence of a rapidly spinning magnetic field. That’s no surprise because the particles themselves are magnetized.

But how they come together is of interest as the particles first gather into a disorganized aggregated cluster and then into a crystal-like regimen as the magnetic field becomes stronger.