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An Anomaly in Phase Transition: Liquid Crystals
In 1888, while Austrian botanist Federich Reinitzer was investigating the properties of various chemical compounds, he observed that the compound cholesteryl benzoate appeared to have two distinct melting points. The solid compound first melted into a cloudy, murky liquid at 145℃, then became transparent at 179℃. 1 Stumped, Reinitzer sent a sample of this material…