Congratulations to Prof. Daniel Shechtman of the Technion Institute of Technology and Iowa State University for winning the 2011 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. See the recorded video from NobelPrize.org.
Professor Shechtman was awarded the prize for discovering quasicrystals, a material in which atoms are packed together in a well-defined pattern that never repeats. Contrary to the previous belief that atoms were packed inside crystals in symmetrical patterns, Shechtman showed that the atoms in a crystal could be packed in a pattern that could not be repeated," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
Professor Shechtman has revealed the secret without which he wouldn't have made his groundbreaking discovery – an electron microscope.
"The Titan Microscope, which is considered the most advanced of its field, is a high resolution electron microscope that can easily detect atoms and is used for discoveries," the tenth Israeli Nobel laureate said. Shechtman noted that without the electron microscope his discovery would have been delayed several years. "The quasicrystals would have been discovered in the future, but without the microscope, It is virtually impossible, because the quasicrystals are very small," he noted.
Listen to Prof. Shechtman discuss his discovery of quasicrystals, a new form of matter.
Prof. Daniel Shechtman and his microscope (Photo: Avishag Shaar-Yashuv)
