If the pathway to the ground is blocked by the ledge, the ball will rest there in a metastable state. The scientists created the starting phase in this experiment by combining alternating layers ...

However, the transition from the liquid to the solid phase is a very complex process ... Furthermore, a liquid can remain in a metastable state for a long time: It remains liquid even though ...

A simulation study now shows that the nucleation of water into atomic stackings of cubic and hexagonal ices occurs through a metastable precursor phase with tetragonal symmetry, and that this ...