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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2011 Daniel Shechtman (Israel)
The nobel Foundation ^ | oct 6, 2011 | staff

Posted on 10/05/2011 2:57:44 AM PDT by AdmSmith

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2011 to

Daniel Shechtman Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

"for the discovery of quasicrystals"

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 has fundamentally altered how chemists conceive of solid matter.

(Excerpt) Read more at nobelprize.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: chemistry; danielshechtman; iowa; israel; nobelprize; quasicrystals; stringtheory
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1 posted on 10/05/2011 2:57:49 AM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: AdmSmith

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2011/info_publ_eng_2011.pdf

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2011/sciback_2011.pdf


2 posted on 10/05/2011 2:58:28 AM PDT by AdmSmith (GCTGATATGTCTATGATTACTCAT)
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To: AdmSmith; bvw; callisto; ckilmer; dandelion; ganeshpuri89; gobucks; KevinDavis; Las Vegas Dave; ...

Thanks AdmSmith.

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3 posted on 10/05/2011 3:07:23 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: AdmSmith

However, the configuration found in quasicrystals was considered impossible, and Daniel Shechtman had to fight a fierce battle against established science.

yay!


4 posted on 10/05/2011 3:07:26 AM PDT by ari-freedom (I'm a heartless conservative because I love this country.)
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To: AdmSmith; steelyourfaith; decimon; SunkenCiv; Billthedrill; Robert A. Cook, PE; Wonder Warthog; ...
Thanks, AdmSmith.

*PING*

*PING* to SteelYourFaith for a parallel example of "the science is settled."

5 posted on 10/05/2011 3:23:21 AM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: AdmSmith
...regular patterns that never repeat themselves.

Am I the only one to whom this phrase does not make sense?

6 posted on 10/05/2011 3:24:13 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: AdmSmith
However, the configuration found in quasicrystals was considered impossible, and Daniel Shechtman had to fight a fierce battle against established science

Did he have to fight as hard as current scientists who are skeptical about global warming?

7 posted on 10/05/2011 3:42:59 AM PDT by paudio (0bama is like a bad mechanic who couldn't fix your car; he just makes it worse. Get somebody else!)
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To: DuncanWaring

Nope. Sounds almost like CNN, not chemistry.


8 posted on 10/05/2011 4:19:18 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: AdmSmith

In quasicrystals, we find the fascinating mosaics of the Arabic world reproduced at the level of atoms


Glad he got the award. But...notice that they had to stick the word “Arabic” in there?


9 posted on 10/05/2011 4:25:33 AM PDT by rbg81
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To: DuncanWaring

http://www.physics.emory.edu/~weeks/pics/icon.html


10 posted on 10/05/2011 4:49:33 AM PDT by Stosh
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To: AdmSmith

Wow, for once an Israeli got a Nobel prize in science instead of a Palestinian. It’s about time.


11 posted on 10/05/2011 4:52:14 AM PDT by samtheman (Palin. In your heart you know she's right.)
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To: grey_whiskers
Interesting. I'm sure "Mother Nature" still has MANY surprises in store for all fields of science, both in the large, and in the small. Anyone who claims "the science is settled" on ANY topic is dreaming.

Looks to me like many of the most firmly held theories are beginning to fray around the edges (symmetry, speed-of-light limit, and I'm sure many others I am not aware of).

12 posted on 10/05/2011 4:58:33 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: AdmSmith

So let me see if I understand this:

One guy comes up with an idea, the whole rest of the world tells him he’s wrong and that the thing he says exists doesn’t exist and can’t exist because it’s impossible, and inconsistent with everything everybody “knows.” He’s driven away from the place where he works and has to go off by himself. 27 years later the thing he said existed, and that everybody else said couldn’t possibly exist, is found in nature. Luckily for him he’s still alive when everybody else in the world wakes up and realizes he was right after all.

The moral of the story could only have been clearer if the guy’s first name were Abraham.


13 posted on 10/05/2011 5:02:09 AM PDT by JOHN ADAMS
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To: betty boop; Alamo-Girl

I thought you ladies might be interested in this thread. After you visit maybe you can then explain it to me. :-)

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2011/info_publ_eng_2011.pdf


14 posted on 10/05/2011 10:40:59 AM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot
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To: Mind-numbed Robot

It’s absolutely fascinating, dear Mind-numbed Robot, thanks for the ping!


15 posted on 10/06/2011 9:59:03 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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Thanks AdmSmith.
16 posted on 10/07/2011 3:12:02 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Mind-numbed Robot; Alamo-Girl; TXnMA; xzins
I thought you ladies might be interested in this thread. After you visit maybe you can then explain it to me. :-)

LOLOL dear MNR!!! Jeepers, I'm not a crystallographer, and have zero experience with experimentation by electron microscope!

Still, on the basis of the link you provided, it seems that conventional science has admitted the possibility of only certain symmetries in nature, topping out at six-fold symmetries. But I wonder whether there can be any x-fold symmetry, where 360 divided by x yields a positive integer. Shechtman's 10-fold symmetry would meet this test, the integer being 36. (But a 7-fold symmetry would not; the division produces a non-integer, 51.4285714.)

Just a speculation here....

Truly fascinating to me is the relevance of the Fibonnaci series and the golden ratio (tau) of mathematics to both quasicrystals and aperiodic mosaics. This tells me that fundamentally, real existing things "reduce" to mathematics. That is, the structural order of the world is, at bottom, mathematical/geometric.

Which would support the ancient idea of "God, Geometer." The etymology of the word "geometer" goes back to the ancient Greek, denoting "measurer of the Earth."

It turns out that these aperiodic quasicrystals that were assumed not to exist actually constitute valuable new materials that we now use in daily life (i.e., Teflon).

But for me, the main takeaway of the article is summed up very well in the final paragraph: "...even our greatest scientists [e.g., Linus Pauling] are not immune to getting stuck in convention. Keeping an open mind and daring to question established knowledge may in fact be a scientist’s most important character traits."

Amen to that!

Thank you so much, dear MNR, for the fascinating link!

17 posted on 10/08/2011 11:56:06 AM PDT by betty boop (We are led to believe a lie when we see with, and not through, the eye. — William Blake)
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To: betty boop
Truly fascinating to me is the relevance of the Fibonnaci series and the golden ratio (tau) of mathematics to both quasicrystals and aperiodic mosaics.

Yeah, that is what I noticed, too. :-)

My take away was similar to yours - when we think we know it all, we don't. There is still much more to be revealed when we are ready for it.

18 posted on 10/08/2011 5:37:30 PM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot
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To: betty boop

Speaking of crystals ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/07/huge-investment-graphene-nobel-prizewinner


19 posted on 10/08/2011 9:08:33 PM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot
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To: betty boop; Mind-numbed Robot; TXnMA; xzins
This tells me that fundamentally, real existing things "reduce" to mathematics. That is, the structural order of the world is, at bottom, mathematical/geometric.

Indeed. And it brings to mind Max Tegmark's Level IV parallel universe model which posits that observables are manifestations of mathematical structures which actually do exist beyond space/time.

Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dearest sister in Christ!

20 posted on 10/08/2011 10:08:45 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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