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Reviews
The Second Kind of Impossible: The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter by Paul Steinhardt
alinaed's review against another edition
5.0
This was thrilling, someone should make a movie out of it!
whimsicalworlds's review against another edition
3.0
The Second Kind of Impossible by Paul Steinhardt chronicles the thirty-five year journey he took, with many collaborators, to conceive of and prove the existence of a particular form of matter long thought to be impossible. Named quasicrystals, they violated long-held laws of crystallography that forbid its existence.
Although I understand why it was necessary, the book is light on the science in order to make it more palatable. Furthermore, crystallography and apparently obscure forms of matter are subjects too far removed from general interest for most to fully appreciate the weight of everything. I have some background in these topics so I would've liked more details.
As a result, there is a heavier focus on the story - which, to be fair, is full of exciting twists and turns and goes places you wouldn't expect. The book also manages to convey a sense of what academic research can be like, and how much time and work really goes into the flashy headlines that most people only see.
I wasn't interested or invested enough in the book and story to rate it higher, but I still found quasicrystals fascinating. Their X-ray diffraction patterns are quite beautiful!
Although I understand why it was necessary, the book is light on the science in order to make it more palatable. Furthermore, crystallography and apparently obscure forms of matter are subjects too far removed from general interest for most to fully appreciate the weight of everything. I have some background in these topics so I would've liked more details.
As a result, there is a heavier focus on the story - which, to be fair, is full of exciting twists and turns and goes places you wouldn't expect. The book also manages to convey a sense of what academic research can be like, and how much time and work really goes into the flashy headlines that most people only see.
I wasn't interested or invested enough in the book and story to rate it higher, but I still found quasicrystals fascinating. Their X-ray diffraction patterns are quite beautiful!
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