Foreground: The growing domain size of rearrangements is demonstrated by only displaying particles participating in these rearrangements (blue). The cluster at the bottom occurs soon after the quench, the middle cluster occurs a few seconds later, and the final cluster occurs after approximately 10,000 seconds of aging. Background: The increase of local crystalline-order during aging is demonstrated by blending a snapshot right after glass formation (bottom, colors slightly faded) into a snapshot after 10,000 seconds of aging (top,bright colors). The aged snapshot (top) has more particles with crystalline-like local configurations (shown in red) than the snapshot taken right after glass formation. (Particles that do not have crystalline-like local configurations are shown in blue).

U. PENN (US)–Despite thousands of years of household and industrial use, certain aspects of glasses have perplexed physicists. Now researchers have found new clues to why the dynamics of glasses get slower and more sluggish as they age.

The University of Pennsylvania-led study set out to determine why glasses become more viscous and rigid over time without major changes to their molecular structure, a phenomenon known as aging.

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