Unusual Microcrystals Discovered in Meteorite Dust
The strange carbon microcrystals have been studied by scientists from Chelyabinsk State University. On February 15, 2013, above Chelyabinsk in Russia’s Southern Urals, the biggest…
Crystals News
Mysterious Hidden Quantum Phase in a 2D Crystal Captured by Scientists for the First Time
Single-shot spectroscopy techniques provide scientists with a new understanding of a mysterious light-driven process. Harold “Doc” Edgerton, the late MIT professor, developed high-speed strobe-flash photography…
Starfish Embryos Swim in Surprisingly Organized Formation – Like a “Living Crystal”
Their swirling, clustering behavior may someday inform the design of self-assembling robotic swarms. A starfish embryo, in its earliest stages, before it sprouts its distinctive…
Physicists Create Continuous Time Crystal for the First Time
Scientists have succeeded for the first time in realizing a time crystal that spontaneously breaks continuous time translation symmetry. The researchers, from the Institute of…
Bending the Laws of Physics: Time Crystals “Impossible” but Obey Quantum Physics
Time crystals were long believed to be impossible because their perpetual motion would seem to defy the laws of physics. However, using quantum physics scientists…
Physicists Discover Strange Array of Links and Knots in Quantum Matter
Electrons in a Crystal Exhibit Linked and Knotted Quantum Twists As physicists dig deeper into the quantum realm, they are discovering an infinitesimally small world…
Producing High-Quality Graphene Cheaply Using Carbon Monoxide
Researchers have proposed the first graphene synthesis technique that utilizes carbon monoxide as the carbon source. It is a fast and cheap way to produce…
Dislocation Avalanches: Smallest Earthquakes Ever Detected in Micron-Scale Metals
On the micrometer scale deformation properties of metals change profoundly: the smooth and continuous behavior of bulk materials often becomes jerky due to random strain…
New Method Allows Scientists To Synthesize Crystals in Ways Not Found in Nature
The new method of synthesizing crystals leads researchers to a brand new phase of metal, which may be useful for new technologies. Results were confirmed…
Scientists Discover New Form of Ice – May Be Common on Distant, Water-Rich Planets
Findings could have implications for our understanding of distant, water-rich planets. Researchers from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas have discovered a new form of…
Molecular Engineers Show How To Make “Computer” Out of Liquid Crystals
Breakthrough at UChicago could pave the way for applications in robotics, computing using soft materials. Researchers with the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular…
Unusual Topology of Sodium Chloride – Table Salt – Revealed by Researchers
A joint research team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and the University of Tokyo discovered an unusual topological aspect of…
Developing Time Crystals for Use in Real-World Applications
Time crystals that persist indefinitely at room temperature could have applications in precision timekeeping. We have all seen crystals, whether a simple grain of salt…
Two Sides of the Same Coin: Tiny Electrical Vortexes Bridge Gap Between Ferroelectric and Ferromagnetic Materials
University of Warwick physicists discover presence of a special ferroelectric texture that mirrors the spin crystal phase (checkerboard-like symmetry) in ferromagnets. Ferromagnetic materials have a…
Scientists Discover a Mysterious Transition in an Exotic Electronic Crystal
Thermal span in a layered compound promises applications in next-generation electrical switches and nonvolatile memory. When temperature changes, many materials undergo a phase transition, such…
Revolutionary Carbon-Based Magnetic Material Finally Synthesized After 70 Years
Researchers from Osaka University and Osaka City University synthesize and crystallize a molecule that is otherwise too unstable to fully study in the laboratory, and…
Crystallography for Misfit Crystals: Advanced Algorithms Reveal Material Structures
Advanced algorithms plus an exceptional X-ray laser can reveal the structures of not-so-neat-and-tidy materials unattainable by other techniques. Francis Crick, who famously co-discovered the shape…
MIT Physicists Watch As Ultracold Atoms Form a Crystal of Quantum Tornadoes
The new observations record a key crossover from classical to quantum behavior. The world we experience is governed by classical physics. How we move, where…
