Using advanced electron microscopy, researchers have watched individual atoms transition from chaotic liquid motion to ordered solid structure, revealing that the boundary between liquid and solid ...

For more than a century, schoolbook physics has divided matter into neat categories like solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. A wave of recent experiments is now tearing at those boundaries, revealing ...

High school science misses a lot of the science researchers actually work with. For example, you learn that there are three states of matter—solid, liquid, and gas—but in advanced physics, things get ...

Scientists studying molten metals have uncovered a surprising truth: even in a liquid state, some atoms do not move at all. Credit: SciTechDaily.com Motionless atoms can trap liquid metal in a strange ...

The melting of materials seems like a simple phenomenon. However, when their thickness is reduced to just a few atoms, established rules waver. In this two-dimensional mode, new states emerge between ...

Physicists begin to shed light on one of the most important questions regarding quantum spin liquids, and they do so by introducing a new phase of matter. Quantum spin liquids are difficult to explain ...

Theoretical modelling explores the movement of atoms within a liquid nanodroplet of platinum that is confined inside a defect in a carbon support. The colours represent the mobility of the atoms: ...

Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us? As scientists continue to explore the quantum world, the known number of phases of ...

Liquid crystals represent a unique state of matter, exhibiting properties that bridge the behaviours of conventional liquids and crystalline solids. Among the various mesophases, smectic phases are ...