Physical Society Colloquium

The Extraordinary Search for Natural Quasicrystals

Paul Steinhardt

Physics Department
Princeton University

Quasicrystals are exotic forms of matter that have symmetries forbidden to crystals, such as five-fold symmetry axes or the shape of a soccer ball in three dimensions. They were first discovered in the laboratory 30 years ago, but could Nature have beaten us to the punch? This talk will describe the search that took over a dozen years to answer this question resulting in one of the strangest scientific stories you are ever likely to hear, including mystery, intrigue and an expedition to one of the most remote places on Earth.