Naturally Occurring Quasicrystals
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Naturally Occurring Quasicrystals
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Re: Naturally Occurring Quasicrystals
#2tl;dr Quasicrystals are aperiodic structures. The author notes that the conditions for creating them are rare, given the need for instantaneous high temperature. They recount that these can happen during space debris impact and when lightning hits sand. They close out by describing some of the chemical 'formulas' for these materials, given that characterizing a prototypical section is difficult without repeating elements.
I don't have anything to say about quasicrystals, other than it seems right up this blog's alley, as the other most recent articles are about math and materials (like feldspars [0]).
[0] https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2501:_Average_Fam...
Re: Naturally Occurring Quasicrystals
#3Related, if you're interested in byproducts of nuclear explosions:
> researchers have identified a new material within trinitite called a clathrate—a cagelike chemical lattice that traps other atoms inside it.[0]
[0]https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-crystals-...
Re: Naturally Occurring Quasicrystals
#4There was a mathematician and a chemist arguing these structures had a pattern that had something to do with the distribution of prime numbers. https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-chemist-shines-light-on-a-s...
Re: Naturally Occurring Quasicrystals
#5There are also "natural" paracrystalline viruses that turn isopods blue and then kill them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invertebrate_iridescent_virus_...
Re: Naturally Occurring Quasicrystals
#6If you haven't already, read the book "The Second Kind of Impossible" by Paul Steinhardt
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35297608-the-second-kind...
It's a riveting account of years of research to discover Quasicrytals from theory, to experiments, to literally hunting in a meteor field in eastern Russia!
Re: Naturally Occurring Quasicrystals
#7tl;dr Quasicrystals are aperiodic structures. The author notes that the conditions for creating them are rare, given the need for instantaneous high temperature. They recount that these can happen during space debris impact and when lightning hits sand. They close out by describing some of the chemical 'formulas' for these materials, given that characterizing a prototypical section is difficult without repeating elem…
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Re: Naturally Occurring Quasicrystals
#8I remade the hero GIF in HD
Re: Naturally Occurring Quasicrystals
#9I remade the hero GIF in HD https://www.shadertoy.com/view/sXsGDl
Thanks! Perfect match as far as I can see, nice one! How did you learn/know how to do this?
The code was really interesting to read and tinker with! I made a version where the symmetry (7 originally) can be other numbers, and that was fascinating to see!
ShaderToy forever!!
Re: Naturally Occurring Quasicrystals
#10I remade the hero GIF in HD https://www.shadertoy.com/view/sXsGDl
Thanks! Perfect match as far as I can see, nice one! How did you learn/know how to do this? The code was really interesting to read and tinker with! I made a version where the symmetry (7 originally) can be other numbers, and that was fascinating to see! ShaderToy forever!!
Ah silly me, you put the sources in the comment!! Thanks for that I will have a read for sure!
It struck me as looking a bit like a demoscene plasma effect but with a radial/angular aspect! (also reminds me of cymatics diagrams a bit!)
I experimented with non-integer symmetries and it seemed not to introduce discontinuities, and I made it produce an RGB value for fun too: