Crystals—from sugar and table salt to snowflakes and diamonds—don't always grow in a straightforward way. New York University researchers have captured this journey from amorphous blob to orderly ...

This new development uses a phenomenon called plasmonic heating that enables more precise crystal formation. Crystals used in applications as varied as lasers, LEDs and the semiconductors used in ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Since their discovery in 1982, exotic materials known as quasicrystals have bedeviled physicists and chemists. Their atoms arrange ...

Water leaking into the Earth may be wrapping the core in crystals, a study has suggested. The study may help explain a weird area in the outer core that has long puzzled scientists. One expert said ...

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. A new analysis of ...

In the last edition of our ongoing series on how planets get ore– those wonderful rocks rich in industrial minerals worth mining– we started talking about hydrothermal fluid deposits. Hydrothermal ...

Crystals -- from sugar and table salt to snowflakes and diamonds -- don't always grow in a straightforward way. Researchers have now captured this journey from amorphous blob to orderly structures. In ...

Crystals used in applications as varied as lasers, LEDs and the semiconductors used in sensors found in astronomical instruments could someday be 'drawn' rather than 'grown', leading to higher ...