(Phys.org)—Virtually all semiconductors used in today's electronic devices are made of silicon having a cubic crystal structure, as silicon naturally crystallizes in the cubic form. In a new study, ...

A team of Chinese scientists may have cracked the secret behind the strange Canyon Diablo diamonds. Hexagonal in form rather than cubic, the process behind how these diamonds formed has, until now, ...

A water droplet freezes around a dust particle in the air, creating an ice crystal. More water molecules land on the crystal and create the hexagonal shape as they extend six ways to form arms. The ...

Ever since Curie conjectured on 'the symmetry in physical phenomena, symmetry of an electric field and a magnetic field,' it has long been a dream for material scientists to search for this rather ...

Researchers in Europe have found a way to make silicon-germanium (SiGe) alloys emit light efficiently, a breakthrough that has the potential to revolutionize integrated silicon photonics. In that ...

In the iconic "Sound of Music" score, "My Favorite Things," a young Julie Andrews lists snowflakes as objects that bring her ...

Scientists have used a mix of physical and chemical properties to bend salt into hexagonal crystals for the first time ever. They formed the thin layer of crystalline salt on a substrate (foundation ...