Access

News and Views

Nature 462, 45-46 (5 November 2009) | doi:10.1038/462045a; Published online 4 November 2009

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs

More science jobs
Post a job for free

Materials science: Soft is strong

C. Austen Angell1 & Kazuhide Ueno1

Top

The mechanisms that govern the rate at which glasses soften on heating have long been a mystery. The finding that colloids can mimic the full range of glass-softening behaviours offers a fresh take on the problem.

For hundreds of years, scientists have wondered how glass-forming liquids solidify without crystallizing as they cool — or indeed without undergoing much change in structure at all. Glass artists take advantage of this continuous rigidification process to create and preserve liquid 'form' and 'action', fascinating onlookers as they turn glowing globs of hot molten glass into elegant shapes.

  1. C. Austen Angell and Kazuhide Ueno are in the Department of Chemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1604, USA.
    Email: caa@asu.edu; Email: kzueno@ynu.ac.jp

MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Multiple Kauzmann paradoxes

Nature News and Views (09 Feb 1995)

Supercooled water Going strong or falling apart?

Nature News and Views (08 Apr 1999)

See all 3 matches for News And Views

RESEARCH

Soft colloids make strong glasses

Nature Letters to Editor (05 Nov 2009)

Little evidence for dynamic divergences in ultraviscous molecular liquids

Nature Physics Article (01 Sep 2008)

Poisson's ratio and the fragility of glass-forming liquids

Nature Letters to Editor (21 Oct 2004)

See all 15 matches for Research