The Exotic Matter States Behind PCs, Visual Displays, and the Future of Water - Facts So Romantic
▻http://nautil.us/blog/the-exotic-matter-states-behind-pcs-visual-displays-and-the-future-of-water
You might have learned in school that there are three phases of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. That is a useful simplification for young students, but there are in fact many, many more. In the past century or so, we’ve discovered that there are hundreds of distinct solid phases—some of which are used to build the silicon chips that run your computer. In addition, there are dozens of liquid crystal phases—some of which create the images on your laptop screen. And that’s before we even get to the really exotic stuff: quantum phases like superfluids, quark-gluon plasma, Bose-Einstein condensates, and the so-called “topological phases.”1 But before we get to that, let’s step back and discuss what we mean by the word “phase.” Like many fundamental concepts, phases are best explained by example. (...)
