The Second Kind of Impossible: The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter
Megan McGregor reviews Paul Steinhardt’s book about the discovery of quasicrystals
When a scientist says the word ‘impossible’ they are usually referring to something that would violate the fundamental laws of the universe. But occasionally the scientific community decides something is impossible based on assumptions repeated so frequently they are taken to be fact. Paul Steinhardt refers to these ideas as ‘the second kind of impossible’ – something that is not really impossible at all, that could actually occur under circumstances that haven’t been considered properly. His book focuses on one particular example of this, his own personal quest to first prove the existence of, and then find, quasicrystals.