In the 17th century, Francis Bacon described a simple experiment—scraping and fracturing hard sugar in the dark to see sparks ...

Water frozen in the darkness of space doesn't appear to behave the way we thought. A new research effort using computer simulations and experiments to explore the most common form water takes in the ...

"Space ice" contains tiny crystals and is not a completely disordered material like liquid water, as previously assumed, according to a new study by scientists at UCL (University College London) and ...

A team has pioneered a new technique for synthesizing amorphous nanosheets by employing solid-state surfactants. These ultra-thin amorphous nanosheets can now be produced from various kinds of metal ...

Water frozen in the depths of space has long been considered a shapeless, frozen fog. For decades, scientists believed it formed without structure, too cold and still to grow orderly crystals. But a ...

For astronomers, probing the mysteries of “space ice”—its molecular makeup and how it formed—could be the key to understanding not just extraterrestrial geology but also the potential for alien life.

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 ...

"Ice in the rest of the universe has long been considered a snapshot of liquid water – that is, a disordered arrangement fixed in place. Our findings show this is not entirely true." Water ice is ...

Scientists have long wondered how tiny silicate crystals, which need sizzling high temperatures to form, have found their way into frozen comets, born in the deep freeze of the solar system’s outer ...

Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have addressed a significant challenge in nanosheet technology. Their innovative approach employs surfactants to produce amorphous nanosheets from various ...