Japanese scientists have rediscovered a long-forgotten type of liquid crystal. 

A family of liquid crystals that are shaped like sycamore seeds have been rediscovered by Japanese scientists. The liquid crystals have been scarcely investigated since their initial discovery in 1911. 

Kazuchika Ohta and co-workers of Shinshu University, Ueda, Japan, claim that these liquid crystals will lay the foundations for a new field of research. 

Around 93,000 liquid crystalline compounds are known and the vast majority of these are rod-like or disc-like, terms which refer to the way the crystals orientate. Ohta's team found reference to flying-seed liquid crystals dating back about 100 years. They decided to use modern techniques to find out whether these compounds really could be a new type of liquid crystals. 

'We believe that this type of liquid crystalline material will be found in extraordinarily high temperature regions' said Ohta, who foresees applications of these liquid crystals in nanotechnology. 

Professor Dietrich Demus, an expert in liquid crystals from the International Scientific Consulting Office, Halle, Germany, agrees that this work may broaden the scope of liquid crystals. 'The team has taken up a long forgotten curiosity and created from it a striking modern topic of liquid crystal research,' he said. 

Rebecca Gillan