For a long time, scientists associated crystal structures with an ordered arrangement of atoms in a repeating lattice-like pattern, believing it to be the most stable configuration. However, by the ...

Researchers have synthesized millimetre-scale hexagonal diamond, a crystal structure so elusive that many physicists doubted it could ever be produced in bulk. The material, also called lonsdaleite, ...

Physicists show that the shape of components is a major determinant of how quickly and efficiently complex structures self-assemble. Physicists at LMU Munich show that the shape of components is a ...

Sitting atop Saturn’s north pole is one of the Solar System’s most striking weather patterns: a rotating, color-changing hexagon slightly wider than Earth. A new study shows there’s another hexagon ...