Frozen Liquids and Fired Earth

Glass is technically not a solid in the traditional sense. It is an amorphous solid — its atoms are disordered like a liquid but frozen in place, lacking the repeating crystal lattice that defines true solids.

Ceramics are the opposite approach. Clay minerals are shaped and then fired at high temperatures (900–1400°C), causing chemical reactions that transform soft clay into a hard, rigid material. The firing drives off water and fuses the silicate minerals together at grain boundaries.