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crystals

A Kagome lattice with atomic spin arrows placed on the edges.
quantum physics

Quantum Simulators Create a Totally New Phase of Matter

By Charlie Wood
December 2, 2021
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One of the first goals of quantum computing has been to recreate bizarre quantum systems that can’t be studied in an ordinary computer. A dark-horse quantum simulator has now done just that.

A grid of balls connected by lines in a triangular pattern.
condensed matter physics

Physicists Create a Bizarre ‘Wigner Crystal’ Made Purely of Electrons

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
August 12, 2021
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The unambiguous discovery of a Wigner crystal relied on a novel technique for probing the insides of complex materials.

patterns

Turing Patterns Turn Up in a Tiny Crystal

By Elena Renken
August 10, 2021
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The mechanism behind leopard spots and zebra stripes also appears to explain the patterned growth of a bismuth crystal, extending Alan Turing’s 1952 idea to the atomic scale.

Animation of a gemstone flipping up and down between mirror-image states.
quantum computing

Eternal Change for No Energy: A Time Crystal Finally Made Real

By Natalie Wolchover
July 30, 2021
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Like a perpetual motion machine, a time crystal forever cycles between states without consuming energy. Physicists claim to have built this new phase of matter inside a quantum computer.

A close-up of fossilized amber.
materials science

Ideal Glass Would Explain Why Glass Exists at All

By Natalie Wolchover
March 11, 2020
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Glass is anything that’s rigid like a crystal, yet made of disordered molecules like a liquid. To understand why it exists, researchers are attempting to create the perfect, still-hypothetical “ideal glass.”

Six looping videos of different types of snowflakes and snow crystals growing.
crystals

Toward a Grand Unified Theory of Snowflakes

By Rebecca Boyle
December 19, 2019
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Snow crystals come in two main types. The “pope” of snowflake physics has a new theory that explains why.

Art for "Black, Hot Ice, Newly Seen in the Lab, May Be Nature's Commonest Form of Water"
chemistry

Black, Hot Ice May Be Nature’s Most Common Form of Water

By Joshua Sokol
May 8, 2019
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A new experiment confirms the existence of “superionic ice,” a bizarre form of water that might comprise the bulk of giant icy planets throughout the universe.

Crystal diffraction art for "A Chemist Shines Light on a Surprising Prime Number Pattern"
prime numbers

A Chemist Shines Light on a Surprising Prime Number Pattern

By Natalie Wolchover
May 14, 2018
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When a crystallographer treated prime numbers as a system of particles, the resulting diffraction pattern created a new view of existing conjectures in number theory.

Physics

Solid or Liquid? Physicists Redefine States of Matter

By Natalie Wolchover
April 3, 2013
Read Later

Glass and other strange materials have long confounded textbook definitions of what it means to be solid. Now, two groups of physicists propose a new solution to the riddle.

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