A new discovery has been made about the element germanium, a relatively rare element found in the Earth’s crust. Scientists have discovered that germanium can form three different crystal structures, or ‘allotropes’, when cooled to extremely low temperatures. This is the first time this has been observed for any element and could open up new potential applications for the element, such as in quantum computing. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research and the University of Stuttgart have spent the last two years studying the properties of germanium and their findings could revolutionize the way we use this element.

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source: Phys.org