Liquid crystals are condensed-matter systems that exhibit phases with orientational order of constituent anisotropic molecules while retaining partial fluidity characteristic of liquids. Depending on molecular organization and symmetry, they form distinct mesophases such as nematic, smectic, and cholesteric, each defined by specific order parameters and broken symmetries. Their physical behavior is governed by elastic continuum theories (e.g., Frank–Oseen) and coupling between director fields, flow, and external fields (electric, magnetic). Liquid crystals display anisotropic optical, dielectric, and rheological properties, enabling controllable phase transitions and defect structures that are central to both fundamental studies of soft matter and engineered photonic or electro-optic systems.
A new pathway has opened for controlling the rotation direction of light simply by changing how molecules are arranged, without having to synthesize complex new materials. Circularly polarized light is a special form of light ...
Optics & Photonics
10 hours ago
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Nanocrystals are so useful that they formed the basis of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. But despite their usefulness, scientists have so far been able to make these microscopic crystals from only a limited palette of ...
Nanomaterials
Jul 16, 2026
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One of the most striking biological transitions in nature happens early in development, when an embryo transforms from a simple ball of cells into a highly ordered structure with distinct tissue layers that later develop ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 30, 2026
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A research team from Hiroshima University, the University of Colorado, and other collaborators have demonstrated that space-time crystals—exotic structures that, under external drive, loop endlessly through both space and ...
Soft Matter
Jun 24, 2026
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Researchers have demonstrated a new way to make spatially separated lasers synchronize and act as a single coherent light source—without extreme conditions or complex materials.
Optics & Photonics
Jun 22, 2026
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Researchers at the University of Twente and Utrecht University have packed rigid, rod-shaped particles into soft lipid containers the size of a living cell and watched the container and its contents reshape each other. The ...
Soft Matter
Jun 22, 2026
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It's tricky to make an exact copy of yourself. Or at least it is for cells undergoing mitosis, where cells replicate everything inside of them, including their neatly packaged DNA, then split in half. Rice University professor ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 29, 2026
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Liquid crystals are an integral part of modern technology, ranging from displays to advanced sensory systems. In a study published in Scientific Reports, researchers from the Institute of Experimental Physics of the Slovak ...
Soft Matter
May 15, 2026
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Researchers have recently found a new way to summon useful structures in magnetic materials using light, heat, and electric fields. This new method, described in a new study published in Physical Review Letters, may lead ...
Researchers have developed, for the first time in the world, incoherent dielectric tensor tomography (iDTT), a technology that can read complex three-dimensional optical fingerprints inside materials using only everyday LED ...
Optics & Photonics
May 7, 2026
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