A solid with conventional crystalline properties but exhibiting a point-group symmetry inconsistent with translational periodicity. Like crystals, quasicrystals display discrete diffraction patterns, crystallize into polyhedral forms, and have long-range orientational order, all of which indicate that their structure is not random. But the unusual symmetry and the finding that the discrete diffraction pattern does not fall on a reciprocal periodic lattice suggest a solid that is quasiperiodic. Their discovery in 1982 contradicted a long-held belief that all crystals would be periodic arrangements of atoms or molecules.