Scientifically speaking, the term “crystal” refers to any solid that has an ordered chemical structure. This means that its parts are arranged in a precisely ordered pattern, like bricks in a wall.

At the heart of ice crystals, often, are aerosol particles onto which ice can form more easily than in the open air. It's a bit mysterious how this happens, though. New research shows how crystals of ...

Crystal engineering harnesses the principles of supramolecular chemistry to design and synthesise novel crystalline architectures with tailored properties. By exploiting specific intermolecular ...

In exploring how crystals form, the researchers also came across an unusual, rod-shaped crystal that hadn’t been identified before, naming it “Zangenite” for the NYU graduate student who discovered it ...

Above: A hexagonal (six-sided) snow crystal, classified as a stellar dendrite. This crystal was photographed with an Olympus TG-6 camera after it landed on the sleeve of the authors fleece jacket.

Crystals—from sugar and table salt to snowflakes and diamonds—don’t always grow in a straightforward way. New York University researchers have captured this journey from amorphous blob to orderly ...