A team of physicists at UCLA has uncovered a strange and unexpected phenomenon—spiral patterns forming spontaneously on solid surfaces. The discovery, which began with a simple mistake in the lab, is ...

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

image: A logarithmic spiral with a diameter of 500 μm, approximately half the diameter of a sewing needle. view more Credit: Yilin Wong Key takeaways Curiosity about a mistake that left tiny dots ...

On a whim, she looked at the dots under a microscope and couldn't believe her eyes. Beautiful spiral patterns had been etched into the germanium surface by a chemical reaction. Wong's curiosity ...