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Structure and properties

Structure and properties

The secrets of the blue fog

06 Apr 2017
Taken from the April 2017 issue of Physics World

Why certain liquids turn blue when cooled was a mystery that stumped scientists for more than a century. As Oliver Henrich and Davide Marenduzzo explain, solving the secret of the “blue fog” proved to be an intellectual tour de force – and one that could lead to new types of display devices

A blue phase liquid crystal seen with an optical microscope
Blue is the colour A blue phase liquid crystal seen with an optical microscope. (Courtesy: Anne Pawsey and Paul Clegg, University of Edinburgh)
In his Prague lab in the late 1800s, the Austrian botanist Friedrich Reinitzer was studying a substa

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