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The Strange Shapes of Cooling Droplets January 21, 2021• Physics 14, s10 Researchers uncover the mechanism that makes some oil droplets change shape from spheres to icosahedrons to flattened plates. I. García-Aguilar/Leiden Univ.; E. Sloutskin/Bar-Ilan Univ. I. García-Aguilar/Leiden Univ.; E. Sloutskin/Bar-Ilan Univ. × Strange things occur when a droplet made of an alkane oil and surfactants is placed in water and cooled. The alkane and surfactant molecules form a solid shell, separating the oil from the surrounding water. Then, as the temperature drops, the shape of this shell changes from a sphere to a 20-sided icosahedron to a flattened hexagonal plate. Now, Ireth García-Aguilar of Leiden University in the Netherlands and colleagues have developed a detailed model to explain these transformations [1]. ....