crystallography

5 posts

A new beast: antiferromagnetic quasicrystals

5 min read
Scicomm antiferromagnetism approximant crystals arc melting crystallography Curie-Weiss temperature electron diffraction ferromagnetism magnetic order magnetisation neutron diffraction quantum spin quasicrystals quasiperiodic order rare-earth elements specific heat spintronics Tsai quasicrystal X-ray diffraction

Scientists have made a new material that is both a quasicrystal and antiferromagnetic — a combination never seen before. Quasicrystals are a special kind of solid. Unlike normal crystals, whose atoms…

Why do quasicrystals exist?

8 min read
Scicomm crystallography Dan Shechtman density functional theory DFT-FE enthalpy entropy finite element analysis fivefold symmetry graphics processing unit Linus Carl Pauling nucleation phase diagram quasicrystals scandium-zinc surface energy translational symmetry unit cell ytterbium-cadmium

Featured image: An example of zellij tilework in the Al Attarine Madrasa in Fes, Morocco (2012), with complex geometric patterns on the lower walls and a band of calligraphy above. Caption and credit:…

A case of Kuhn, quasicrystals & communication - Part II

7 min read
Uncategorized crystallography Dan Shechtman Dov Levine Istvan Hargittai Malcolm Browne Paul Steinhardt Penrose tiling quasicrystals science journalism Structure of Scientific Revolutions three-dimensional geometry

Did science journalists find QCs anomalous? Did they report the crisis period as it happened or as an isolated incident? Whether they did or did not will be indicative of Kuhn’s influence on science j…