Once-Ridiculed Discovery Redefined the Term Crystal

Daniel Shechtman's discovery that atoms in a solid can achieve fivefold symmetry by arranging themselves in a pattern that almost but never quite repeats—a "quasicrystal"—has netted this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry. In 1982, Daniel Shechtman of the Technion-Israel Institute o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inScience (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 334; no. 6053; p. 165
Main Author CLERY, DANIEL
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published American Association for the Advancement of Science 14.10.2011
Subjects
Aluminum
Atoms
Crystals
Diffraction patterns
Materials
NEWS & ANALYSIS
Nobel Prizes
Tessellations
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Summary:Daniel Shechtman's discovery that atoms in a solid can achieve fivefold symmetry by arranging themselves in a pattern that almost but never quite repeats—a "quasicrystal"—has netted this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry. In 1982, Daniel Shechtman of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa discovered an alloy of aluminum and manganese that appeared to have fivefold symmetry: that is, the atoms in it formed a pattern that appeared essentially the same when rotated by a fifth of a turn, or 72˚. Other researchers scoffed, as such an arrangement was thought to be mathematically impossible. Yet scientists eventually realized that atoms in a solid can achieve such symmetry by arranging themselves in a pattern that almost but never quite repeats—a "quasicrystal." Shechtman's discovery has now gone from ridicule to ultimate accolade: It has netted this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.334.6053.165