Diverging and converging patterns forming on the surface of solidifying liquid metals resemble plotlines in a complex historical novel, in a new international study. The cyclic patterns observed are ...

During the liquid-to-solid transition of alloys with very small concentrations of a minor component, surface patterns emerge that feature enrichment of the minor component. These periodic surface ...

"The long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been." The opening lines of the great Chinese historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms condense its complex and ...