Quasicrystals: Somewhere between order and disorder

Professionally speaking, things in David Damanik's world don't line up – and he can prove it. In new research that's available online and slated for publication in July's issue of the Journal of the American Mathematical Society, Damanik and colleague Serguei Tcheremchantsev offer a key proof in the study of quasicrystals, crystal-like materials whose atoms don't line up in neat, unbroken rows like the atoms found in crystals.