A lab mistake led to self-forming spiral patterns on metal surfaces, revealing chemical-mechanical interactions.

A team of physicists at UCLA has uncovered a strange and unexpected phenomenon—spiral patterns forming spontaneously on solid ...

UCLA doctoral student Yilin Wong left a sample out by mistake. It was a small chip made of germanium, topped with thin layers ...

The layered sample consisted of a germanium wafer topped ... under a microscope and couldn't believe her eyes. Beautiful spiral patterns had been etched into the germanium surface by a chemical ...

Hundreds of regular patterns spontaneously emerge on a small germanium chip. A curiosity about tiny dots on a germanium wafer with metal films led to the discovery of intricate spiral patterns etched ...