Quasicrystals

Just catching up on the news this week and came across these beautiful images of quasicrystals.
The Nobel prize for Chemistry was won by Daniel Shechtman for the discovery of these quasicrystals. Believe it or not this discovery was highly controversial, he was ridiculed by other scientists including a previous Nobel prize winner.

Although this is an excellent story of self belief and perseverance it was the patterns themselves which caught my eye and made me think directly of Islamic architecture as seen in the geometric patterns evident in mosaics, wooden grilles and ceramic art. Of course there is nothing new in art echoing nature, especially when mathematics is used as the base but at this microscopic level I find that astounding.