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Numerical simulations help uncover mind-boggling new states of matter that behave simultaneously like liquids and solids. (Image credit: Turtle Rock Scientific; research credit: V. Robinson et al.; via NatGeo; submitted by Emily R.)

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Pizza the Puzzle

Looking like a slice of pepperoni pizza, it’s not the toppings here, but what’s underneath this 20,000-times smaller triangular nanosheet of silver that counts. Pictured from above under a high-powered microscope, the glittering triangles are pulled towards the surface beneath by Van der Waals forces, the same molecular ‘glue’ which keeps a gecko’s foot stuck to a tree. But there are deliberate obstacles in the way – tiny nanospheres of iron oxide underneath cause the silver to bend and deform, producing circular bumps. Creating regular, predictable patterns is a dream of material scientists wanting to alter the properties of natural metals – this new technique might help create devices to refract light during biomedical imaging, or as ready-made catalysts, their tiny divots ideal places for drug compounds to react.

Written by John Ankers

Image from work by Sarah M. Rehn and colleagues, The Jones Lab, Rice University

Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

Image copyright held by the original authors

Published in Nano Letters, December 2020

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Neighbor: you didn’t decorate your house this year

Me: Sure I did

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Just Some More Equations I Think Are Influential

Fourier Transform

Developed by Joseph Fourier a French mathematician, the Fourier transform has been all-important to understanding complex waves such as human speech. The Fourier transform breaks up complex functions into a combination of simple waves. It has been vital to modern signal analysis and physics.

Euler’s Formula

Developed by Leonhard Euler, this equation has been extremely influential to several fields including physics, mathematics, and engineering by relating the mathematical constant e, trigonometry, and complex numbers.

Normal Distribution Function

With its well-known bell curve graph, the normal distribution is extremely important to statistics for describing behaviors of large groups. This statistical technique is so important that it is used in many areas of science.