A time crystal is a form of matter that shows continuous, repeating patterns over time, much like how atoms in a normal ...

“Everything is born out of nothing,” said Ivan Smalyukh, a physicist at the University of Colorado Boulder. “All you do is shine a light, and this whole world of time crystals emerges.”. In a paper in ...

In a surprising twist, researchers have identified crystals that are symmetrical but nevertheless absorb light as if they were chiral (Science 2025, DOI: 10.1126/science.adr5478). The discovery ...

The dazzling circular image is a hyperbolic tiling of a polarized photo of a citric acid crystal. “When you’re a scientist, you’re trying to really convey information with your images, and you don’t ...

Optical microscope image of a representative crystal that possesses centrosymmetry, yet shows differential absorption of circularly polarized light. The crystal is made of lithium, cobalt, selenium ...