Stockholm: An Israeli scientist who suffered years of ridicule and even lost a research post for claiming to have found an entirely new class of solid material was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry on Monday for his discovery of quasicrystals.
Three decades after Daniel Shechtman looked with an electron microscope at a metal alloy and saw a pattern familiar in Islamic art but then unknown at a molecular level. Shechtman, 70, from Israel’s Technion institute in Haifa, was working in the United States in 1982 when he observed atoms in a crystal he had made formed a fivesided pattern that did not repeat itself, defying received wisdom that they must create repetitious patterns, like triangles, squares or hexagons.
Quasicrystals are very hard and are also poor conductors of heat and electricity, giving uses as thermoelectric materials, which convert heat into electricity. They also have non-stick surfaces, handy for frying pans, and appear in energy-saving lightemitting diodes (LEDs) and heat insulation in engines.
“People just laughed at me,” Shechtman recalled in
an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz, notinghow Linus Pauling, a colossus of science and double Nobel laureate, mounted a “crusade” against him, saying, “There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists.”
After telling him to go back and read the textbook, the head of his research group asked him to leave for “bringing disgrace” on the m.
“His discovery was extremely controversial,” said the Nobel Committee. “However, his battle eventually forced scientists to reconsider their conception of the very nature of matter.” REUTERS
Three decades after Daniel Shechtman looked with an electron microscope at a metal alloy and saw a pattern familiar in Islamic art but then unknown at a molecular level. Shechtman, 70, from Israel’s Technion institute in Haifa, was working in the United States in 1982 when he observed atoms in a crystal he had made formed a fivesided pattern that did not repeat itself, defying received wisdom that they must create repetitious patterns, like triangles, squares or hexagons.
Quasicrystals are very hard and are also poor conductors of heat and electricity, giving uses as thermoelectric materials, which convert heat into electricity. They also have non-stick surfaces, handy for frying pans, and appear in energy-saving lightemitting diodes (LEDs) and heat insulation in engines.
“People just laughed at me,” Shechtman recalled in
an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz, notinghow Linus Pauling, a colossus of science and double Nobel laureate, mounted a “crusade” against him, saying, “There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists.”
After telling him to go back and read the textbook, the head of his research group asked him to leave for “bringing disgrace” on the m.
“His discovery was extremely controversial,” said the Nobel Committee. “However, his battle eventually forced scientists to reconsider their conception of the very nature of matter.” REUTERS
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