So Useful, Those Quasicrystals

For years, the community working on quasicrystals in many countries in the world was expecting the ultimate recognition of its contribution to the advancement of crystal chemistry, solid-state physics, mathematics, and other fields. Nearly thirty years after the initial discovery, it was finally awarded in October 2011 to Prof. Danny Shechtman by the Nobel Committee for Physics and Chemistry. Many, most often independent, achievements contributed to this success. The purpose of this article is to chronicle the role played by the applications of quasicrystals and related compounds in the development of the field and its financing by governmental institutions as well as private companies. Those applications, potential or realized, have made the field of quasicrystals comprehensible to the general public and to decision makers all over the world, including in Stockholm, in spite of its rather complicated high-dimensional crystallographic background, and in spite of the absolute opposition that a great chemist manifested against it in its infancy.