A Hard Look at Glass

by Paul Madden Nature, 5 May 2005 Glass constitutes an 'ill-condensed' state of matter. Salmon and colleagues present unprecedentedly detailed studies of the structure of two glassy materials. Their findings may help to explain why the molecules in the materials that form glasses fail to find the lowest-energy arrangement when cooled to low temperatures, and this should aid our understanding of these scientifically and technologically important materials. Read the article