Powerful Attraction

A rigger guides a leg that will support a $2 million magnet in Simon Hall’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility Wednesday afternoon. The magnet itself was lifted by a crane and placed in the facility around 5 p.m. IU purchased the instrument three years ago. Two weeks ago it was shipped to Chicago from England, said Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility Manager Doug Brown.

Biochemistry researchers and graduate students will primarily use the magnet to look at proteins and other molecules, including DNA, Brown said. The magnet, which was funded by the Metacyte Business Lab through the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, will take about two months to get up and running, he said.