The Second Kind of Impossible: The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter
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The Second Kind of Impossible: The Extraordinary Quest for a New Form of Matter Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Paul J. Steinhardt (Author), Peter Larkin (Narrator), Audible Studios (Publisher)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 265 ratings
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One of the most fascinating scientific detective stories of the last 50 years, an exciting quest for a new form of matter. The Second Kind of Impossible plays like James Gleick’s Chaos combined with an Indiana Jones adventure.

When leading Princeton physicist Paul Steinhardt began working in the 1980s, scientists thought they knew all the conceivable forms of matter. The Second Kind of Impossible is the story of Steinhardt’s 35-year-long quest to challenge conventional wisdom. It begins with a curious geometric pattern that inspires two theoretical physicists to propose a radically new type of matter - one that raises the possibility of new materials with never-before-seen properties but that violates laws set in stone for centuries. Steinhardt dubs this new form of matter “quasicrystal”. The rest of the scientific community calls it simply impossible.

The Second Kind of Impossible captures Steinhardt’s scientific odyssey as it unfolds over decades, first to prove viability and then to pursue his wildest conjecture - that nature made quasicrystals long before humans discovered them. Along the way, his team encounters clandestine collectors, corrupt scientists, secret diaries, international smugglers, and KGB agents. Their quest culminates in a daring expedition to a distant corner of the Earth, in pursuit of tiny fragments of a meteorite forged at the birth of the solar system.

Steinhardt’s discoveries chart a new direction in science. They not only change our ideas about patterns and matter but also reveal new truths about the processes that shaped our solar system. The underlying science is important, simple, and beautiful - and Steinhardt’s firsthand account is an engaging scientific thriller.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

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  1. Listening Length
    11 hours and 21 minutes
  2. Author
    Paul J. Steinhardt
  3. Narrator
    Peter Larkin
  4. Audible release date
    April 23, 2019
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Audible Studios
  7. ASIN
    B07Q2DSG28
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 11 hours and 21 minutes
Author Paul J. Steinhardt
Narrator Peter Larkin
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date April 23, 2019
Publisher Audible Studios
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B07Q2DSG28
Best Sellers Rank #152,351 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#95 in Solid-State Physics (Books)
#95 in Mineralogy (Books)
#124 in Earth Sciences (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
265 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

SaguaroGeorge
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting application for a Nobel Prize
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2020
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I agree that Steindardt writes well and introduces many fascinating characters in this book, and that he follows some of the contrivances of the detective story to keep you turning pages. All of that is true, and I did indeed keep turning pages as if I were reading a novel. But this is not a novel. It is a book purporting to be about science and meant to be read and understood by the educated non-scientist reader. That is why there are no equations in this book, though Steindardt refers to mathematical proofs which, in the circumstances, must be taken on faith. So, how much science did I get from this book? What to do I know now that I didn’t know before I read this 368-page book?

At the outset, I learned several new things about molecular structure, in particular the concept of rotational symmetry; fascinating. I learned a bit more along the way, then I got bogged down in an interminable camping trip in eastern Russia – seventy pages of mosquitoes and mud and clay and feasts featuring fresh salmon and caviar and rivers of vodka and panning in a stream for tiny grains of what might, or might not, be remnants of a meteorite crash. I got the point that these scientists did not limit their activities to laboratories, but I got the point long before they finally returned to civilization. I really think this section could have been adequately covered in, say, twenty pages, shortening this book by fifty pages without depriving the reader of any information of interest or importance. I could also have done without the nth repetition of Steindardt’s admiration of this or that colleague, mentor, or student, and yes I already knew that Dick Feynman was a legendary figure in the world of science (and bongo drums, which Steindardt doesn’t mention).

There are some good photos in this book, one section of color plates, the rest black-and-white. Many of the photos of greatly magnified specimens frankly made little sense to me, despite Steindardt’s descriptions. Some, especially the color photos, were beautiful, but also I found it difficult to understand their significance.

So, am I happy I read this book? Sure; I can think of many worse ways of spending yet another day in lockdown. But if it were shorter, and less repetitive, and . . . well, it is what it is, and I do recommend it to anybody with a long span of attention and a willingness to put up with some quirks as the price of admission. And if the significance of the discoveries covered in this book is anything near what Steinhardt claims, then I am happy to support his Nobel application.
3 people found this helpful
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Thad Szabo
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling story of intensive research
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2021
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How many theoretical physicists have ever undertaken a dangerous and remote geological field expedition?

The story leading up to the journey into the wilds of Eastern Russia is a tale of the careful consideration and rejection of ideas that are the lifeblood of rigorous science. This account could easily disappear into all of the technical details needed for understanding the importance of quasicrystals, but Steinhardt does a good job of bringing insight into the people who helped with these investigations. He shows the highs and lows of moving emotionally through work that requires above all that you do not fool yourself into believe something simply because you want to. At the same time, he illustrates the camaraderie that can happen over a fiercely debated set of ideas.

Paul Steinhardt was the professor for the first physics classes I took in college. Based on that experience, I expected the clear explanations he gives in this book for both the theoretical and experimental work on quasicrystals. What I did not expect was seeing him in such harsh physical conditions as this wilderness north of the Kamchatka Peninsula. I should not have been surprised by his dedication.
One person found this helpful
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Edoardo Angeloni
4.0 out of 5 stars A great adventure of thinking for a new chemstry.
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2019
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The author is an important researcher of chemistry, which explicates to us the properties of matter. All that introduces new concepts in the old models, producing a revolution in Kuhn sense. So the author has a nice style of describing those differences of paradigma. Therefore we can observe the role of other researchers, whom were in the same group of Steinhardt.
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H. B. P.
5.0 out of 5 stars A most intriguing whodunit science book!!
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2023
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This turned out to be one of the most enjoyable science books that I have read recently. The author turned the discovery of a new and unique material into an international project involving scientists from around the world. They finally proved that the material was created 4.5 billion years ago during the formation of our solar system and eventually made it to eastern Russia about 7,000 years ago as a meteor.
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JimmyP
5.0 out of 5 stars A yarn for serious rockhounds
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2019
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This book is a real page turner! It also gives he lay reader an insight into how mathematicians (Steinhardt is a theoretical physicist; his interest in crystallography is a sideline) view the world. First, the book gives some background on the symmetries of crystals and especially of Penrose tilings. Starting in the 1970s, he generalized this to 3D structures called quasicrystals, that exhibit "impossible" symmetries, which were initially disbelieved (except by tiling fans),until examples were created in the laboratory! In the next Part, he turns his attention to the question: can these occur as natural minerals? He eventually found samples that suggested some may have been found in remote mountains of Siberia, and describes his trip to the site to collect more. This part is a classic story of exploration, and is beautifully written. My only criticism of this book is that every(!!) electron micrograph should have a scale bar. Through all this, he is concerned with how to be sure what is found is a really a natural mineral and not a result of human activities at the prospecting site. Oddly, he does not consider the possibility that Thermite welding could have yielded spurious samples. I read the Kindle version of this book, and was displeased to find error messages that my "Paperwhite" did not support t his book. I finally downloaded and used the desktop reader, which worked fine, but was not what I wanted.
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Top reviews from other countries

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LarryD
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book
Reviewed in Mexico on July 19, 2020
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A very interesting and educational book. Great reading
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Bai
5.0 out of 5 stars A scientific adventure through theoretical physics and geology
Reviewed in Canada on May 12, 2020
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The author is a theoretical physicist, who hypothesizes the existence of a new type of matter called a quasicrystal. Early in the book, the author comes up with a theoretical model to explain a new material synthesized by Shechetman; there is some debate whether it's really a quasicrystal, but the community eventually accepts it. Now the question is whether quasicrystals exist in nature.

They start with a computer search through mineral databases, and a collaborator finds a promising specimen in a museum in Italy. However, geologists are skeptical that it's natural, due to the presence of metallic aluminum (which oxidizes quickly). It turns out to be very hard to trace where the sample came from, and it's only a small pebble so they quickly run out of material to do tests.

Eventually, they decide to go on an expedition to the place of origin to discover more samples, in the remote Koryak mountains in Chukotka, Russia. After two weeks of digging, they bring home a lot more samples, and confirm that the quasicrystal came from a meteorite and was formed in a high-speed impact in space. Very readable story about the discovery of a new form of matter whose properties are still being investigated.
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S
5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2021
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Wonderful story telling of following leads, theoretical and circumstantial, over multiple strands and many years. While the successes that make the story a happy ending one, possibly unlike most scientific chases, there are plenty of dead ends described to contrast with the heady successes. This gives some flavour of what theoretically grounded stubbornness can lead to. Well worth reading.
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Francisco Inacio Bastos
5.0 out of 5 stars feliz combinação de livro de ciência e de aventuras
Reviewed in Brazil on February 27, 2020
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Trata-se de um livro bastante original, que me agradou bastante, mas não saberia dizer se agradaria a outros leitores, pois é uma combinação, pouco comum, entre um livro de ciência (primeira parte) e de aventuras na Sibéria (na sua segunda parte).

Pode ser que uma ou outra parte não agradem a um eventual leitor que preferiria um livro exclusivamente voltado para a ciência ou, alternativamente, um livro que abordasse exclusivamente o desafiador contexto e fauna da região. Da minha parte, a mistura deu 100% certo: excelente livro!
One person found this helpful
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NEMO
5.0 out of 5 stars Story that should be told again and again..... Mesmerizing Journey of a Scientific Curiosity!
Reviewed in India on September 5, 2020
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This book by one of the most influential theoretical physicist would give you a virtual tour of his amazing scientific journey for last 40 years. There's a lot of hidden surprises and unexpected twists and turns that would surely attract one to question everything thing which seems impossible. The take away lesson that I took from his perspective is that we should all seek for a nice closure for our adventures which in his case became infinitely unachievable in the sense that every closure lead him to new questions and setting him into a new journey to seek for the next closure one after another.
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NEMO
5.0 out of 5 stars Story that should be told again and again..... Mesmerizing Journey of a Scientific Curiosity!
Reviewed in India on September 5, 2020
This book by one of the most influential theoretical physicist would give you a virtual tour of his amazing scientific journey for last 40 years. There's a lot of hidden surprises and unexpected twists and turns that would surely attract one to question everything thing which seems impossible. The take away lesson that I took from his perspective is that we should all seek for a nice closure for our adventures which in his case became infinitely unachievable in the sense that every closure lead him to new questions and setting him into a new journey to seek for the next closure one after another.
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