quasicrystals
 

The scientific consensus for 200 years was that these were impossible and they didn't exist. Dan Shechtman was even fired for insisting he was right. Science is funny like that. Today's indisputable consensus is tomorrow's faux pas.

Definition please?

"Quasicrystals are a fascinating aspect of chemical and material science – crystals that break all the rules of being a crystal at all. You can normally explain in simple terms where in a crystal each atom sits – they are very symmetrical. With quasicrystals, that symmetry is broken: there are regular patterns in the structure, but never repeating."

yes, regular patterns but not repeating - al crystallo is laughing at us now I guess

maybe Roger Penrose can figure it all out...

Grandma's wallpaper!

Works better with acid.

Lasers were also a solution in search of a problem when they were first invented. I am sure there will be some very cool things to come from these if they are in fact harder and tougher than crystalline materials. So they have more order than metallic glasses but less order than your typical piece of Magnesium, for instance (precipitation hardened alloys and steels still being somewhat more complicated and less orderly). I suspect turbine blade manufacturers will continue to painstakingly grow their monolithic crystal blades due to the need to control the direction of strain.

Can you smoke it?

you can shave with them now or use them to poke people in the eye*

-- lots of other advances will come from this...






* assuming you have the right degree and have passed your residency, etc.

very cool idea, but so is liquid metals and transparent metals. In the next decade there will be some very interesting materials coming forward mostly due to the increase in computing power and a new abundancy of rare earths.

it would be fun to see how they behave when subjected to the research conditions which led to crystal applications.

That was on NPR yesterday...

cellular,dude