Frontpage » Tag » crystals

News tagged with crystals

Single-atom transistor is 'perfect'

In a remarkable feat of micro-engineering, UNSW physicists have created a working transistor consisting of a single atom placed precisely in a silicon crystal.

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Feb 19, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (44) | comments 24 | with audio podcast

Quasicrystal is extraterrestrial in origin

A rare and exotic mineral, so unusual that it was thought impossible to exist, came to Earth on a meteorite, according to an international team of researchers led by Princeton University scientists. The discovery ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jan 13, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (37) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Viking 'sunstone' more than a myth

Ancient tales of Norse mariners using mysterious sunstones to navigate the ocean when clouds obscured the Sun and stars are more than just legend, according to a study published Wednesday.

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Nov 02, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (34) | comments 37

Time crystals could behave almost like perpetual motion machines

(PhysOrg.com) -- As every young science student knows, moving objects have kinetic energy. But just how much energy does something need to move? In a new study, a pair of physicists has shown that it’s ...

Physics / General Physics

created Feb 20, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (34) | comments 39 | with audio podcast report

Vikings could have steered by polarized light

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Vikings are said to have been able to navigate with the aid of "sunstones" that allowed them to see the sun on cloudy or foggy days. Now scientists in Hungary and Sweden say the sunstones ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Feb 03, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (30) | comments 13 | with audio podcast report

Invisibility carpet cloak can hide objects from visible light

(PhysOrg.com) -- Most of the invisibility cloaks that have been demonstrated to date conceal objects at frequencies that are not detectable by the human eye. Designing invisibility cloaks that can conceal ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jun 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (20) | comments 22 | with audio podcast feature

New kind of high-temperature photonic crystal could someday power everything from smartphones to spacecraft

A team of MIT researchers has developed a way of making a high-temperature version of a kind of materials called photonic crystals, using metals such as tungsten or tantalum. The new materials — which ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Feb 03, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (18) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Pee power: Urine-loving bug churns out space fuel

Scientists on Sunday said they had gained insights into a remarkable bacterium that lives without oxygen and transforms ammonium, the ingredient of urine, into hydrazine, a rocket fuel.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Oct 02, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (18) | comments 14

Earth's oldest fossils boost hopes for life on Mars

(PhysOrg.com) -- Microfossils found in Australia show that more than 3.4 billion years ago, bacteria thrived on an Earth that had no oxygen, a finding that boosts hopes life has existed on Mars, a study published ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Aug 21, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (17) | comments 11

Jewel-toned organic phosphorescent crystals: A new class of light-emitting material

(PhysOrg.com) -- Pure organic compounds that glow in jewel tones could potentially lead to cheaper, more efficient and flexible display screens, among other applications.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Feb 14, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (17) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Bend-it e-books get real with EPD in factory mode

(PhysOrg.com) -- LG Display has set the production clock ticking for a plastic EPD (electronic paper display) product which in turn is expected to set e-book marketability fast-forward. In an announcement ...

Electronics / Hardware

created Mar 30, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (17) | comments 14 | with audio podcast report

Superconductivity's third side unmasked

The debate over the mechanism that causes superconductivity in a class of materials called the pnictides has been settled by a research team from Japan and China. Superconductivity was discovered in the pnictides ...

Physics / Superconductivity

created Jun 17, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (16) | comments 42 | with audio podcast

Shining a light on the elusive 'blackbody' of energy research

A designer metamaterial has shown it can engineer emitted "blackbody" radiation with an efficiency beyond the natural limits imposed by the material's temperature, a team of researchers led by Boston College ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Jul 22, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (16) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Physicists describe how to make time-reversed light pulses

(PhysOrg.com) -- By taking advantage of the properties of periodic systems, physicists have described how to efficiently time-reverse ultrashort electromagnetic pulses. Since a time-reversed pulse evolves ...

Physics / General Physics

created May 31, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (17) | comments 44 | with audio podcast feature

New 3-D photonic crystal has both electronic, optical properties

In an advance that could open new avenues for solar cells, lasers, metamaterials and more, researchers at the University of Illinois have demonstrated the first optoelectronically active 3-D photonic crystal.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jul 24, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (15) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Crystal

A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography. The process of crystal formation via mechanisms of crystal growth is called crystallization or solidification. The word crystal is derived from the Ancient Greek word κρύσταλλος (krustallos), meaning both “ice” and “rock crystal”, from κρύος (kruos), “icy cold, frost”.

Most common metals are polycrystals. Crystals are often symmetrically intergrown to form crystal twins.

For more information about Crystal, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.