Nature Mater. 7, 556–561 (2008) doi:10.1038/nmat2219

A glass is caught somewhere between a liquid and a crystalline solid — its atoms move, but they do so very slowly. Theorists predicted that was because the atoms arranged themselves in localized structures that prevented both rapid flow and crystallization.

Paddy Royall of the University of Bristol, UK, Hajime Tanaka at the University of Tokyo and their colleagues have created a model of glass that helps verify these predictions. The team suspended microscopic beads in a polymer that caused them to attract one another. They watched as beads clumped into larger structures, creating a glass-like gel. The work confirms the earlier theory about localized structures and will improve the understanding of glasses, the authors write.