Physicists are now watching matter behave in a way that defies everyday intuition, with atoms and even light itself arranging into structures that are rigid like a crystal yet able to flow like a ...

When materials become just one atom thick, melting no longer follows the familiar rules. Instead of jumping straight from solid to liquid, an unusual in-between state emerges, where atomic positions ...

The 20th century was marked by the discovery of exotic states of matter. First, liquid helium was observed to flow without friction at extremely low temperatures, a phase now known as superfluid. Soon ...

Physicists have observed a strange new quantum phase in a graphene-based system, where a superfluid appears to freeze into a solid-like state. Cooling usually pushes matter through a simple sequence.

Scientists discover a new solid-liquid hybrid state in nanoparticles, revealing unique properties crucial for improving ...

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When ice melts into water, it happens quickly, with the transition from solid to liquid being immediate. However, very thin materials do not adhere to these rules. Instead, an unusual state between ...

Electricity powers our lives, including our cars, phones, computers and more, through the movement of electrons within a circuit. While we can’t see these electrons, electric currents moving through a ...

In ordinary materials, electrons move too quickly for their negative electric charges to affect their interactions. But at low temperatures and densities, they can be made to crystallize into an ...