It's uncommon but when it happens, as it does in the quantum realm, scientists have previously been left shrugging their shoulders. Now when material that had been capable of conducting electricity loses that property, becoming an insulator, they're nodding their heads in recognition instead.

As explained in a recent paper published in Physical Review Letters, an international team of researchers working at the DESY Institute in Germany made their discovery while working with a compound of the rare earth metals: tellurium, selenium and thulium. They found that the compound lost its inherent conductivity because of what researchers described as a "particle dance" involving a group of particles called polarons (POLE A RONS) -- quasiparticles which can combine and behave as one particle instead of several. The polarons can spur activity between electrons and the nearby atoms, impeding the flow of electricity by slowing it down and eventually halting it altogether.

The researchers wrote that their findings show "that the properties of a material cannot be explained by its chemical composition alone."

The scientists concluded that their findings about polarons may ultimately lead to development of new types of matter or the ability to alter some materials' optical, magnetic or electrical properties.