Crystallography matters ... more!

To celebrate the International Year of Crystallography, "Caffè-Scienza Firenze" invites you to a special event on 13 February 2014 

Programme:
5 pm: Visit to the Crystallography Museum of University of Florence
6 pm: Lecture by Prof Luca Bindi (Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Firenze)

The world of crystallography was forced to reassess its rules about thirty years ago with the introduction of the concept of quasicrystals, solids with rotational symmetries forbidden to crystals, and the discovery of the first examples in the laboratory. Since then, more than one hundred different types of quasicrystals have been synthesized in the laboratory under carefully controlled conditions. The original theory suggested that quasicrystals can be as robust and stable as crystals, perhaps even forming under natural conditions. This thought motivated a decade-long search for a natural quasicrystal, culminating in the discovery of icosahedrite (Al₆₃Cu₂₄Fe₁₃), an icosahedral quasicrystal found in a museum sample consisting of several typical rock-forming minerals combined with exotic rare metal alloy minerals, like khatyrkite and cupalite. During the talk the protagonist will briefly recount the extraordinary story of the search and discovery of the first natural quasicrystal.