A challenge in materials design is that in both natural and manmade materials, volume sometimes decreases, or increases, with increasing temperature. While there are mechanical explanations for this phenomenon for some specific ...
General Physics
Mar 16, 2022
1
790
For the past year, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has been traveling through a transition zone from a clay-rich region to one filled with a salty mineral called sulfate. While the science team targeted the clay-rich region and ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 22, 2022
1
637
Be it magnets or superconductors, materials are known for their various properties. However, these properties may change spontaneously under extreme conditions. Researchers at the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) and ...
Quantum Physics
Sep 2, 2022
5
975
When temperature changes, many materials undergo a phase transition, such as liquid water to ice, or a metal to a superconductor. Sometimes, a so-called hysteresis loop accompanies such a phase change, so that the transition ...
Materials Science
Feb 7, 2022
1
1256
The interior of the Earth is a mystery, especially at greater depths (> 660 km). Researchers only have seismic tomographic images of this region and, to interpret them, they need to calculate seismic (acoustic) velocities ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 12, 2021
1
1456
An international team of physicists, with the participation of the University of Augsburg, has for the first time confirmed an important theoretical prediction in quantum physics. The calculations for this are so complex ...
Quantum Physics
Sep 22, 2022
1
892
Under certain conditions—usually exceedingly cold ones—some materials shift their structure to unlock new, superconducting behavior. This structural shift is known as a "nematic transition," and physicists suspect that ...
Superconductivity
Jun 22, 2023
1
728
Measurements on a superconducting material show an abrupt transition between a normal metal and a "strange" metal. The really strange thing, however, is that this abruptness disappears when the temperature falls. "We don't ...
General Physics
Nov 29, 2019
13
2639
The first direct evidence of white dwarf stars solidifying into crystals has been discovered by astronomers at the University of Warwick, and our skies are filled with them.
Astronomy
Jan 9, 2019
18
12582
Zoom in on a crystal and you will find an ordered array of atoms, evenly spaced like the windows on the Empire State Building. But zoom in on a piece of glass, and the picture looks a bit messier—more like a random pile ...
Condensed Matter
May 30, 2017
4
3483
