Crystal Wings

Did you know that glass is neither a liquid nor solid?  It's certainly a mysterious, beautiful, yet essential part of our everyday lives.  Here's an explanation of the strange properties of glass taken from science writer Ben Gilliland's book 'Science But Not As We Know It' -

When you look at glass on a molecular level, it actually appears to be more liquid than solid.  In a solid, the molecules are arranged in neat and rigid shapes, but in glass the molecules are arranged in an almost random jumble - like a liquid.  In fact, structurally there is almost no difference between a liquid and glass.  Glass is made by cooling a liquid below its freezing point.  As the temperature drops, the molecules become more sluggish and the liquid becomes more viscous until they become almost motionless and the glass is formed.  But, unlike a solid whose molecules stop moving, the molecules in glass never really stop.  It is this lack of transition between its phases that has led many physicists to argue that glass is neither a liquid nor solid, but is instead in a sort of in-between state known as an "amorphous solid".


The little crystal aeroplane in my blipfoto was a treasured gift from Mum and Dad many years ago, when I was still flying gliders and single-engined aircraft from Wycombe Air Park in Buckinghamshire.

PS:  I've been getting a bit behind with my journal, so you may like to look over my backblips for the past few days if you haven't seen them already.