Cool Picture of the Moment

This is a reconstruction of a crystalline cluster of 2.4 micron diameter colloidal particles, that interact like hard spheres. The particle positions were measured with the confocal laser scanning microscope of our lab. With this tool we are able to observe the formation and growth of an isolated crystallite in the metastable liquid.

The red spheres stand for particles that have a crystal-like surrounding and the blue particles are neighbors of the crystal-like cluster that have at least one crystal-like bond with one of the particles in the cluster.

You can turn the cluster with your mouse pointer to have a closer look at it.

Picture provided by by Urs Gasser