In 1896, German chemist Emil Fischer noted something very strange about a molecule named acetaldehyde phenylhydrazone. Identical batches of the crystalline compound appeared to have wildly different ...

The melt memory effect on the crystal growth of isotactic polystyrene is investigated using optical microscopy. After a spherulite is melted at a slightly higher temperature than the melting point and ...

An international team of researchers have observed a phenomenon called virtual melting in colloidal crystals. They studied how it helps enable changes from one crystalline structure to another Virtual ...

Materials scientists and physicists have demonstrated a new method of making single crystals that could enable a wider range of materials to be used in microelectronics, solar energy devices and other ...

Solid ice is slippery because of a “quasi-liquid layer” at the surface. New studies with both computer models and direct measurements show that this layer forms as single layers of the ice ...