FIVE-FOLD SYMMETRY POSSIBLE. Quasicrystals
Israeli wins chemistry Nobel for quasicrystals
(October 5, 2011) http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-wins-chemistry-nobel-quasicrystals-111320081.html
Israeli scientist Dan Shechtman was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for a discovery that faced skepticism and mockery, even prompting his expulsion from his research team, before it won widespread acceptance as a fundamental breakthrough.
“The main lesson that I have learned over time is that a good scientist is a humble and listening scientist and not one that is sure 100 percent in what he read in the textbooks,” Shechtman, 70, told a news conference Wednesday at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.
A square contains fourfold symmetry, for example: If you turn it by 90 degrees, a quarter-turn, it still looks the same. For crystals, only certain degrees of such symmetry were thought possible. Shechtman had found a crystal that could be rotated one-fifth of a full turn and still look the same, which was thought to be impossible.
Natural Quasicrystals
Full article can be accessed if Dilnet is used: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/324/5932/1306.abstract
“Here we present evidence of a naturally occurring icosahedral quasicrystal that includes six distinct fivefold symmetry axes. The mineral, an alloy of aluminum, copper, and iron, occurs as micrometer-sized grains associated with crystalline khatyrkite and cupalite in samples reported to have come from the Koryak Mountains in Russia. The results suggest that quasicrystals can form and remain stable under geologic conditions, although there remain open questions as to how this mineral formed naturally”
Sabi ni Sir JDDianala, Geol40 instructor namin: “Iniisip ko kung paano ito isasama sa Geol 40. First, there were the Organic MIneral Class. Now, this.”
Buti na lang nakapag-Geol40 na kami nang hindi pa na-incorporate ang organic minerals at five-fold symmetry. It’d be fun, though. X))))))))
