The Second Kind of Impossible
Prof. Paul J. Steinhardt
Albert Einstein Professor in Science, Professor of Physics
Director, Princeton Center for Theoretical Science
Princeton University
Quasicrystals were thought to be impossible, until one was accidentally synthesized in the laboratory about forty years ago. But was that the first quasicrystal? Is it impossible for them to have formed in Nature first? And if it’s not impossible, why weren’t they discovered long ago? This talk will describe the decades-long long effort to answer these questions, resulting in one of the stranger scientific adventures you are ever likely to hear.
Hosted by Prof. LoSecco