This book tells the story of a stunning scientific discovery in a fascinating and accessible first-person way. Theoretical physicist Paul Steinhardt, professor at Princeton University, author of important cosmological theories about the early universe, in whose honor the International Mineralogical Association in 2014 named the new mineral "steinhardtite," describes how a new form of matter was found - quasicrystals, with a configuration of atoms forbidden by the laws of classical crystallography. This is a fascinating story about the birth of a new scientific direction, about the "impossibility" that turned out to be possible, about genuine passion and desperate courage in science.