Crystals: 
(Sfx: far out music)

     THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN'.  USED TO BE A CRYSTAL WAS SOMETHING
SCIENCTISTS USED TO STUDY EVERYTHING FROM METALS TO DNA.  THESE DAYS CRYSTALS
FIND THEIR WAY INTO ALL SORTS OF NEW AGE STORES TO INTRIGUE THE REST OF SOCIETY
AS WELL.  

(Sfx: switch to "Age of Aquarius") 

BUT EVEN WITHIN THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY THE WORLD OF CRYSTALS HAS RECENTLY
GONE THROUGH UPHEAVAL.  THE  VERY DEFINITION OF A CRYSTAL IS CHANGING, SAYS
MARJORIE SENECHAL, A MATHEMITICIAN AT SMITH COLLEGE.  ORGINALLY A CRYSTAL
WAS DEFINED AS A MATERIAL WHERE THE MOLECULES WERE LINED UP IN PERFECT ORDER
LIKE WELL-STACKED ORANGES IN THE GROCERY STORE. 

     Senechal: "A crystal as a built up structure made of blocks that's how we have
been thinking about it mathematically"

     IF YOU'VE EVER HELD A CRYSTAL UP TO THE SUN YOU KNOW THAT THESE PERFECTLY
ORDERED ATOMS CAN CREATE BEAUTIFUL REPEATING PATTERNS OF LIGHT.  IF THE ATOMS
WEREN'T SO PRECISE THEN THERE'D BE NO PATTERN.  OR SO IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THOUGHT. 
BUT IT TURNS OUT THAT YOU CAN GET LIGHT PATTERNS EVEN WHEN THE ATOMS ARE FAR
MORE DISORDERED THAN ANYONE THOUGHT POSSIBLE. 

     Senechal: "The blocks are more complicated and the pattern is more
complicated"

     IN FACT, FOR SCIENTISTS USED TO SEEING ATOMS LINED UP IN PERFECT SYNCH LIKE
SOLDIERS IN LOCKSTEP 

(Sfx: marching song)

THIS WAS MORE LIKE A HIGH SCHOOL MARCHING BAND IN VARYING FORMATIONS ON A
FOOTBALL FIELD.  

(Sfx: kazoo marching song) 

THERE'S AN INHERENT SENSE OF A PATTERN, BUT IT'S NOWHERE NEAR AS RIGID.  SCIENTISTS
NOW DEFINE A CRYSTAL AS ANYTHING THAT MAKES THE PERFECT LIGHT PATTERNS EVEN IF
THE MOLECULES THEMSELVES AREN'T PERFECTLY ORDERED. 

     Senechal: "Now we realize that there is a whole range of what we might call
order and . . . it's a realization that nature has a lot more things in store for us than we
ever dreamed about before."

FOR SR THIS IS KCF.