  Quantum measurements not only extract information from a system but also
alter its state. Although the outcome of the measurement is probabilistic, the
backaction imparted on the measured system is accurately described by quantum
theory. Therefore, quantum measurements can be exploited for manipulating
quantum systems without the need for control fields. We demonstrate
measurement-only state manipulation on a nuclear spin qubit in diamond by
adaptive partial measurements. We implement the partial measurement via tunable
correlation with an electron ancilla qubit and subsequent ancilla readout. We
vary the measurement strength to observe controlled wavefunction collapse and
find post-selected quantum weak values. By combining a novel quantum
non-demolition readout on the ancilla with real-time adaption of the
measurement strength we realize steering of the nuclear spin to a target state
by measurements alone. Besides being of fundamental interest, adaptive
measurements can improve metrology applications and are key to
measurement-based quantum computing.
