Phase transitions have long been of crucial importance to scientific research. The change from water to ice or steam is a simple example. A phase transition important to pioneering research today is that from metal to insulator in materials referred to as "correlated oxides." Scientists have reaped many insights into phenomena like superconductivity and magnetism by studying what happens when a correlated oxide that conducts electricity with little or no resistance (metallike) changes to one that does not (insulator) as a result of changes in temperature, pressure, or other external fields.
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