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A Quasi-Quasicrystal

Posted by kdawson on from the fractional-quasiness dept.

An anonymous reader sends along a link to a mindbending article in Science News on quasicrystals — odd materials with a structure partway between order and disorder. Now researchers have found something even odder: a material that's partway between a quasicrystal and a regular crystal. The order in the new structure is provided by the Fibonacci sequence. It was constructed with plastic beads and laser beams, so no new materials science inventions are on the horizon. "'We are absolutely sure that this structure should have properties that are not usual,' Mikhael says, because materials with odd structures almost always do. Now they just have to figure out what those properties are."

18 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Anyone else find that quote hilarious? by haltenfrauden27 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "'We are absolutely sure that this structure should have properties that are not usual,' Mikhael says, because materials with odd structures almost always do."

    Sounds like something out of a Monty Python sketch.

    Seriously, though, I'd rather hear about what interesting/new discoveries come out of this strange material than just hear about the possibility of its existence.

    --
    Catch telemarketers
    1. Re:Anyone else find that quote hilarious? by Paradigm_Complex · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously, though, I'd rather hear about what interesting/new discoveries come out of this strange material than just hear about the possibility of its existence.

      When that's announced people will complain that the information is pretty useless and would rather hear about practical applications found for it.
      When that's announced people will complain about why they haven't heard about this before. Others will complain about how it was on digg years ago and how slashdot is slow.

      So shut up and discuss the interesting stuff we have know now :D
      Or get high and stare at the trippy pictures :D
      Or make an off topic meme-based joke :(

      --
      "A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
    2. Re:Anyone else find that quote hilarious? by dontmakemethink · · Score: 3, Informative

      "'We are absolutely sure that this structure should have properties that are not usual,' Mikhael says, because materials with odd structures almost always do."

      Sounds like George Dubya Bush paraphrasing Yoda.

      --

      War as we knew it was obsolete
      Nothing could beat complete denial
      - Emily Haines
    3. Re:Anyone else find that quote hilarious? by hyades1 · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Or make an off topic meme-based joke"

      You mean, like teaching sharks with lasers on their heads to swim in formation so they could generate quasi-crystals as they went about their nefarious business? I am above such childish antics!

      --
      I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    4. Re:Anyone else find that quote hilarious? by syousef · · Score: 3, Funny

      So shut up and discuss the interesting stuff we have know now :D

      Is that what they call quasi quasi moderation?

      That's cwazsy.

      --
      These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
    5. Re:Anyone else find that quote hilarious? by dwater · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "We are absolutely sure that this structure should have properties that are not usual,' Mikhael says, because materials with odd structures almost always do."

      Right. What kind of logic does this guy use?

      "We are absolutely sure it should have 'something'... because ... others almost always do..."

      "We're...100%....80%....60%..." Add a few more even 'less certain' words, like "surely", "perhaps", "maybe" and the confidence in his assertion would have dropped from 100% certainty all the way to 0% certainty in a single sentence.

      I mean, hedging your bets or what? This guy should be a politician.

      --
      Max.
    6. Re:Anyone else find that quote hilarious? by Artuir · · Score: 5, Funny

      I for one welcome our shark-toting Fibonacci based Hitler laser fiends, you insensitive clod!

    7. Re:Anyone else find that quote hilarious? by omnichad · · Score: 3, Funny

      And it would have worked too, if it weren't for the dupes (on Slashdot).

    8. Re:Anyone else find that quote hilarious? by Firehed · · Score: 4, Funny

      In Soviet Russia, insensitive sharks tote Fibonacci, you Hitler-based laser crystal!

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
  2. A truckload of beads for your stock options! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hey, it has worked before...

  3. In the old days... by Moryath · · Score: 3, Funny

    we used to just split hairs.

    Now we split crystals. And get quasicrystals. Which were supposed to be unusual.

    And now we have quasi-quasicrystals. And then they're "not usual."

    And next we can get something somewhere between a quasicrystal and a quasiquasicrystal.

    I'd rather hear about what interesting/new discoveries come out of this strange material than just hear about the possibility of its existence.

    In 10 years' time you'll be hearing about the quasiquasiquasiquasiquasiquasiquasiquasiquasicrystal, but we still won't know what the heck to do with them.

    "We are absolutely sure that this structure should have properties that are not usual," Mikhael says, because materials with odd structures almost always do. Now they just have to figure out what those properties are.

    Property #1: the ability to endow a grad student with his PhD and a sizable chunk of grant money.

    1. Re:In the old days... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      For an example of a practical use, Teflon is a quasicrystal. I read somewhere that they tend to be slippery.

  4. Possibilities by moteyalpha · · Score: 3, Funny

    I could be a random resistance element that could be used as a random number seed. Or it could be the mythical room temperature non-conductor.

  5. "found" or "constructed" by ulash · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Which one is it? The summary needs to make up its mind. Either it is something that occurs naturally (and TFA seems to suggest otherwise) in which case it would be "found" or it is something cooked up in a lab which would make it "constructed".

  6. New meme by Misanthrope · · Score: 3, Funny

    Almost but not entirely unlike crystal?

    1. Re:New meme by nospam007 · · Score: 4, Funny

      It can be used to build a machine making something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

  7. Re:Penrose tiling? by whyloginwhysubscribe · · Score: 5, Funny

    They don't exist anymore - they got bought out by Hawking's Bathrooms in 2004.

  8. Paraphrasing TFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    We'd like to study these crystals, but we require more vespene gas!