Physicists in the Netherlands have identified a type of crystal that, bizarrely, can turn uncharacteristically floppy and soft on the outside. Crystals are typically hard solids that are distinguished by their well-defined, regular geometric shapes that reflect their highly ordered molecular structure. Familiar examples might include ice, table salt or quartz. Certain salts which already contain water in their chemical structure, however, lose their shape and hardness in the process of being dissolved by moisture.
The study was undertaken by chemical physicist Professor Noushine Shahidzadeh of the University of Amsterdam and her colleagues.
They explained: “Minerals are natural materials that make up a large part of the Earth and other planets.
“Their physical properties are generally determined by their constituent chemical elements — the crystal lattice defining the arrangement of atoms and the nature of bonding.”
Some of these properties ... Read even more
