If you memorized the periodic table, if you whipped up exothermic reactions in your kitchen, Wenting Zhu and Yan Liang are here to renew your relationship with the elements. To generate the images in ...

Three scientists have been awarded the 2025 Nobel prize in chemistry for discovering a new form of molecular architecture: crystals that contain large cavities. The prize recognizes the pioneering ...

Imagine you had a crystal ball that revealed when a volcano would next erupt. For the hundreds of millions of people around the world who live near active volcanoes, it would be an extremely useful ...

The people at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History were nice enough to give a couple members of the Chemistry in Pictures team a behind-the-scenes look at their mineral ...

In a surprising twist, researchers have identified crystals that are symmetrical but nevertheless absorb light as if they were chiral (Science 2025, DOI: 10.1126/science.adr5478). The discovery ...

Going back through time, cultures around the world—from ancient Sumer to Indus Valley, China, and South America—have believed crystals could evoke a kind of sorcery, conjure change, and heal disease.

Crystal polymorphism is critically important in the fields of pharmaceuticals and materials science. For instance, a metastable polymorph of an active pharmaceutical ingredient may benefit from ...

One of the classic questions in materials crystal chemistry is: why do atoms arrange themselves in the way they do? To address this challenge, the concept of phase homologies has been widely used.

A new theory 'demystifies' the crystallization process and shows that the material that crystallizes is the dominant component within a solution -- which is the solvent, not the solute. The theory ...

An artificial intelligence created by Google DeepMind may help revolutionise materials science, providing new ways to make better batteries, solar panels, computer chips and many more vital ...

While it may not look like it, the interstellar space between stars is far from empty. Atoms, ions, molecules, and more reside in this ethereal environment known as the Interstellar Medium (ISM). The ...