Physicists Made a Time Crystal We Can Actually See

Of all the eccentricities of the quantum realm, time crystals—atomic arrangements that repeat certain motions over time—might be some of the weirdest. But they certainly exist, and to provide more solid proof , physicists have finally created a time crystal we can actually see.

In a recent Nature Materials paper, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder presented a new time crystal design: a glass cell filled with liquid crystals—rod-shaped molecules stuck in strange limbo between solid and liquid. It’s the same stuff found in smartphone LCD screens. When hit with light, the crystals jiggle and dance in repeating patterns that the researchers say resemble “psychedelic tiger stripes.”

“They can be observed directly under a microscope and even, under special conditions, by the