Crystal surprise

CRYSTALLOGRAPHERS in the US claim to have confirmed the existence of
an entirely new kind of solid matter called quasicrystals. The picture above
shows a magnified image of a single grain of the material they synthesised,
a blend of aluminium, cobalt and copper. Refik Kortan and colleagues at
AT&T’s Materials Interface Research Department at Murray Hill in New
Jersey speculate that quasicrystals may exhibit unforeseeable mechanical
and electrical properties that suit them to entirely new applications. AT&T’s
material conducts electricity and resists wear.