When materials become just one atom thick, melting no longer follows the familiar rules. Instead of jumping straight from solid to liquid, an unusual in-between state emerges, where atomic positions ...

While universal formulas exist for every other phase transition (liquid-to-gas, gas-to-liquid, even solid-to-gas), no such formula exists for predicting when a solid melts into a liquid. A new study ...

Gold remains perfectly solid when briefly heated beyond previously hypothesized limits, a new study reports, which may mean a complete reevaluation of how matter behaves under extreme conditions. The ...

Scientists have used ultrafast high-intensity lasers to superheat gold to 14 times its melting point without turning the solid metal into a liquid. The record-breaking experiment, which was described ...

Gold usually melts at 1,300 kelvins—a temperature hotter than fresh lava from a volcano. But scientists recently shot a nanometers-thick sample of gold with a laser and heated it to an astonishing ...