Imagine you’re floating at the top of a cloud and you’re made of a dust particle. It’s 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Water vapor freezes onto you, making an icy, three-dimensional prism. It has six flat sides ...

For nearly a century, scientists have understood how crystalline materials—such as metals and semiconductors—bend without breaking. Their secret lies in tiny, line-like defects called dislocations, ...

Samples of "trinitite" created during the world’s first nuclear bomb test in 1945 contain unique crystals never seen before.

Nearly 80 years after the event, trinitite still has the power to amaze.

Crystals can do all sorts of things, some more useful than others. They can separate the gullible from their money in New Age healing shops. But they can also serve as the light-harvesting layer in a ...

One longstanding problem has sidelined life-saving drugs, stalled next-generation batteries, and kept archaeologists from identifying the origins of ancient artifacts. For more than 100 years, ...

Before trinitite, the only known naturally formed quasicrystal came from meteorite fragments, likely produced during a ...

The Trinity bomb test left behind a unique form of matter, and now, scientists have discovered a new chemical structure ...