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Where was Dan Shechtman working when he made his discovery of quasicrystals?
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quasicrystal
Figure 1: Hexagonal lattice of atomic sites.
Dan Shechtman made his groundbreaking discovery of quasicrystals in 1982 while on sabbatical at the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Gaithersburg, Maryland.1
While investigating the metallurgical properties of aluminum-manganese alloys, Shechtman observed an unexpected fivefold symmetry using an electron microscope. This finding challenged long-standing scientific consensus regarding the nature of crystals, as such aperiodic structures were previously considered impossible.1