Bismuth crystals reflect light in all colours of the rainbow Oliver Berg/dpa/Alamy
Ultra-thin flakes of bismuth display mysterious magnetic properties – which could help the soft, iridescent metal become a wonder material for making greener electronics.
“Frankly, I’m still waking up at night because I wonder: what is at play here?” says at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Researchers have suspected that very thin flakes of bismuth could have unusual physical properties, as other ultra-thin materials like carbon-based graphene do. But because bismuth is so…



