Oct. 5, 2011 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided
to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2011 to Daniel
Shechtman of the Technion -- Israel Institute of Technology in
Haifa, Israel, for the discovery of quasicrystals: non-repeating
regular patterns of atoms that were once thought to be
impossible. A remarkable mosaic of atoms In quasicrystals, we
find the fascinating mosaics of the Arabic world reproduced at
the level of atoms: regular patterns that never repeat
themselves. However, the configuration found in quasicrystals
was considered impossible, and Daniel Shechtman had to fight a
fierce battle against established science. The Nobel Prize in
Chemistry 2011 recognizes a breakthrough that has fundamentally
altered how chemists conceive of solid matter. On the morning of
April 8, 1982, an image counter to the laws of nature appeared
in Daniel Shechtman's electron microscope. In all solid matter,
atoms were believed to be packed inside crystals in symmetrical
patterns that were repeated period