Comment by emptybits
3 months ago
> "a quasicrystal — a kind of matter scientists once thought impossible that challenges traditional ideas about how solids form"
Whenever I read a phrase about scientists observing something they thought was impossible ... I get really excited for scientists in that field! :-)
There's a wonderful book by one of the discoverers of quasicrystals, Paul Steinhardt, called "The second kind of impossible" which is a fantastic read and full of the excitement you alluded to. Very accessible and enjoyable.
Science advances one “huh, that’s weird” at a time.
Just a note, clathrates in general aren't rare or exotic at all, in fact methane clathrates are estimated in the million-cubic-km range. It's this specific type of clathrate, created under exotic circumstances, that's unusual.