The reversible switching of macrocyclic molecules between a liquid and a solid phase upon exposure to vapor has been reported. The transition between a solid and a liquid phase, a key process in daily ...

Everything around you - and even your body - is made up of the three phases of matter. Let's find out more. The whole world and everything we can see around us is made up of matter. Matter can be ...

Changes in a liquid as it becomes a glass are related to repulsion between atoms as they are crowded together. Although scientists have long believed the poorly understood glass transition must have ...

Scientists have observed transitions into and out of an exotic state of matter found between liquid and solid in 2-D materials (Sci. Rep. 2021, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-80082-x). The hexatic phase ...

Substances can exist in three states of matter - solid, liquid and gas. All substances are made from particles, and the forces between the particles are different in solids, liquids and gases. The ...

Physicists are now watching matter behave in a way that defies everyday intuition, with atoms and even light itself arranging into structures that are rigid like a crystal yet able to flow like a ...

Glass and other strange materials have long confounded textbook definitions of what it means to be solid. Now, two groups of physicists propose a new solution to the riddle. The answer seems simple ...

Solids, liquids and gases. In a solid like this brick, the particles are regularly arranged touching their neighbours and move only by vibrating. This explains why solids have a fixed shape. In a ...