For scientists and engineers, the best way to understand a new or unknown material--whether it's an alloy, a pharmaceutical or a meteorite--is to delve into its atoms. Techniques such as X-ray ...

Exotic states of matter known as time crystals are largely considered a quantum phenomenon. Now, a team from New York ...

Because liquid crystals are similar to oil, the surfactants were attracted to the liquid crystal shells, causing the molecules to order in different ways and create striking patterns. The more soap ...

Remember the graph paper you used at school, the kind that’s covered with tiny squares? It’s the perfect illustration of what mathematicians call a “periodic tiling of space”, with shapes covering an ...

Crystals are nature's most orderly substances. Inside them, atoms and molecules are arranged in regular, repeating structures, giving rise to solids that are stable and rigid—and often beautiful to ...

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a technique for mapping deformation in metals that can recover destroyed serial numbers on metal objects such ...

Researchers have found special atomic patterns called quasicrystals in 3D-printed aluminum alloys. Quasicrystals increase the strength of 3D-printed aluminum, the researchers discovered, making it ...

Physicists have finally watched a fluid that should never freeze lock itself into a crystal pattern, then melt back again, all without losing its quantum strangeness. In a sheet of graphene, they ...