Scientists are intrigued by how gold nuggets form, often tucked in quartz veins. The process seems to involve earthquakes and ...

A study shows that similarly charged particles can sometimes attract, rather than repel. The team found that like-charged particles suspended in liquids can attract one another at long-range, ...

When earthquakes squeeze quartz crystals, the mineral generates electricity that attracts gold particles. Pierre Longnus via Getty Images Earthquakes may help prospectors strike gold: When these ...

The study found that negatively charged silica microparticles suspended in water attracted each other to form hexagonally arranged clusters. (Image: Zhang Kang) Besides overturning long-held beliefs, ...

Gold has always been a hot commodity. But these days, finding a nugget isn’t too tricky: Much of the world’s gold is mined from natural veins of quartz, a glassy mineral that streaks through large ...

The fact that like charges repel and opposites attract is basic electromagnetism. But for decades scientists have occasionally made a counterintuitive, and controversial, observation: similarly ...

Mesmerizing videos offer a new look at the ways crystals form. The real-time clips, described March 30 in Nature Nanotechnology, show closeup views of microscopic gold particles tumbling, sliding and ...

Engineers at MIT have developed a device that generates electricity using a completely new mechanism. “Particles” made of carbon nanotubes are dunked in an organic solvent, which induces a current to ...