The quest for quasicrystals is a physics adventure tale
‘The Second Kind of Impossible’ reveals how scientists found the strange materials in nature
![quasicrystal pattern](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/030219_reviews_impossible_feat.jpg?fit=860%2C460&ssl=1)
AN ELEGANT ASYMMETRY The atoms in a quasicrystal are arranged something like the tiles in this pattern: They form shapes that have order but no repetition. Paul Steinhardt studied such tiling patterns to understand how quasicrystals could be constructed.
P. Steinhardt