Israeli scientist Dan Shechtman was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for his discovery of a new form of crystal whose patterns and configuration defied previously held laws of nature and altered chemists’ understanding of solid matter.
The Tel Aviv-born professor’s 1982 discovery of what would become known as quasicrystals provoked controversy in his field, demonstrating atoms in some crystals were packed in patterns that could not be repeated, which was once thought impossible.
“His discovery was extremely controversial,” the Nobel Committee for Chemistry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted in announcing the prize, which includes a $1.45 million award. “In the course of defending his findings, he was asked to leave his research group. However, his battle eventually forced scientists to reconsider their conception of the very nature of matter.”
Since Shechtman’s discovery, scientists have discovered naturally occurring quasicrystals in minerals found in a Russian river and a certain form of steel. They have also been produced in labs.
Scientists are searching for practical applications in everything from diesel engines to frying pans.
In a phone interview, Shechtman recounted the moment when he realized that the atomic structure in the chilled molten metal he was studying with an electron microscope manifested as a pattern of dots that didn’t fit with the laws of nature as scientists understood them, and to the definition of crystal structure.
The crystal, he soon determined, had fivefold symmetry — in other words, it looked the same each time the crystal was rotated one-fifth of a full circle under the microscope.
Crystals can show threefold, fourfold or sixfold symmetry, but fivefold was thought to be impossible.
“This was not allowed by the theory. It couldn’t be,” Shechtman said. “So this was the beginning of a new science.”
Shechtman is Israel’s 10th Nobel laureate and the fourth to win for chemistry in the country’s 63-year history.
Three former Israeli prime ministers have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in trying to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
