Abstract
Archeological discoveries of jewelry from ancient civilizations reveal the old admiration of crystals’ beauty. Along with the artisanship of crystal decorated articles, came the belief that crystals have powers that affect people, and regretfully, such beliefs are very much alive in our times. The correct ideas about the structure of crystals had to wait until the dawn of the logical-scientific times. Johannes Kepler proposed the packing of spheres geometry in 1611 and started the science of crystallography. However, the experimentalists had to wait until von Laue gave us x-ray diffraction in 1912 and shortly thereafter, the Braggs came with their equation. Understanding physical and chemical properties of crystals came with a vast number of studies that followed. The talk will focus on explaining the scientific origin of our fascination with crystals.
