Scientists discover new field affecting metals solidificationA fundamental discovery that alters our

Scientists discover new field affecting metals solidificationA fundamental discovery that alters our current understanding of how metals solidify and form crystalline patterns may help lead to better control of casting and welding processes. It also explains how snowflakes and many mineral patterns form naturally.Reexamining data from his 20-year-old NASA experiment involving the repeated freezing and melting of high-purity materials in microgravity, Martin Glicksman, research professor in materials science and the Allen Henry Chair at Florida Institute of Technology, working with Kumar Ankit at the School of Matter, Transport and Energy at Arizona State University, discovered the way nature guides formation of complex patterns in materials that crystallize.Glicksman discovered an energy field affecting all crystallizing substances, which he labeled the bias field that he believes is nature’s way of guiding cellular and branching dendritic microstructures that form during solidification of most metals and alloys.“In the last phases of melting, needle-like crystals suddenly changed to spheres, and so for the first time ever, as we watched stationary particles melting in microgravity and observed their rather remarkable shape change,” Glicksman said.Read more. -- source link

More pics about