Symmetry is a powerful framework to perceive and predict the physical world. The structure of materials is described by a combination of rotations, rotation-inversions and translational symmetries. By ...

Reflective symmetry is when a shape can be folded in half, with either side of the fold being a mirror image of the other. Rotational symmetry is when a shape can be rotated and it still looks the ...

To begin to understand what mathematicians and physicists see in the abstract structures of symmetries, let’s start with a familiar shape. We are fond of saying things are symmetric, but what does ...

Ordered materials with 7-fold, 9-fold or 11-fold symmetries are never observed in nature. Researchers discovered the reason for this when they tried to impose a 7-fold symmetry on a layer of charged ...

Symmetry attracts us. Studies comparing people’s reactions to different faces have shown, for example, that they find highly symmetrical faces more attractive than less symmetrical faces. The symmetry ...

From Simons Science News (find original story here). Mathematicians classify objects by their symmetries. If you turn a five-armed starfish a fifth of a revolution, it looks unchanged, so it has a ...

Physicists have put a new twist on the humble corkscrew. Just as a butterfly appears identical to its mirror image, objects made of structures that tilt, twist or spiral possess a symmetry now ...