Pattern formation is a fundamental yet ubiquitous phenomenon which has interested and inspired scientists for a long time. "The first time I saw such cyclic divergent-convergent patterns, it immediately reminded me of the famous opening lines of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms," said Dr Jianbo Tang from University of New South Wales (UNSW, Australia), who is the first author of the study. Most surprisingly, the researchers observed that the patterns divide and unite in a repeated manner. The individual Ag 2Ga structures that build the patterns are small, with micrometre or nanometre thicknesses, tens or hundreds of times less than a human hair. The researchers found that a single silver-gallium system can produce distinct patterns such as particles or bundle-like structures of a Ag 2Ga compound. The team dissolved a small amount of metals such as silver (Ag) in low-melting-point solvent metals such as gallium (Ga), and investigated how the metallic components interact and separate to form patterns when the metallic liquid mixtures (alloys) solidify. Now, published in the journal Nature Synthesis, scientists from Australia, New Zealand, and the US reported a new type of solidification patterns that resembles the plots in the Chinese classic, but this time appearing on the surface of solidifying liquid metals. The opening lines of the great Chinese historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms condense its complex and spectacular stories into a coherent pattern, that is, power blocs divide and unite cyclically in turbulent battle years.Ī good philosophy or theorem has general implications.
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