Scientists Discover New Form Of Matter: Time Crystals | Fiona MacDonald

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Perpetual motion without energy

Jan. 28, 2017 (ScienceAlert.com) -- For months now, there's been speculation that researchers might have finally created time crystals -- strange crystals that have an atomic structure that repeats not just in space, but in time, putting them in perpetual motion without energy.

Now it's official -- researchers have just reported in detail how to make and measure these bizarre crystals. And two independent teams of scientists claim they've actually created time crystals in the lab based off this blueprint, confirming the existence of an entirely new form of matter.

The discovery might sound pretty abstract, but it heralds in a whole new era in physics -- for decades we've been studying matter that's defined as being "in equilibrium," such as metals and insulators.

But it's been predicted that there are many more strange types of matter out there in the Universe that aren't in equilibrium that we haven't even begun to look into, including time crystals. And now we know they're real.

The fact that we now have the first example of non-equilibrium matter could lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of the world around us, as well as new technology such as quantum computing.