Trật tự và hỗn độn trong thế giới nguyên tử

by Aleksandr Kitaigorodsky, A.I. Kitaigorodxki, Hữu Ngọc (dịch)

Our main aim is to examine whether the atoms and molecules constituting the world around us are distributed in space in a random and disordered fashion, like pebbles on the beach, or in an ordered pattern like the cells of a honeycomb. However, it is often impossible to make such a clear-cut distinction, and it is better not to use "order" and "disorder" as absolute terms but to speak instead of a "degree of order" and a "degree of disorder. " These concepts are fairly new in science. Up to about 20-30 years ago it was still believed (and in fact this belief can still be en­ countered today) that certain states of matter - such as gases, liquids, and amorphous solids - were characterized by a totally disordered distribution of the constituent particles, whilst crys­ tals, by contrast, exhibited perfectly ordered lattices. According to the present view, on the other hand, order and disorder often coexist inseparably from each other, though there are admittedly many cases in which "order" or "disorder" does describe quite accurately tbe actual state of affairs. Symptoms of disorder have recently been found in seemingly perfectly regular molecular structures, and symptoms of order in seemingly perfectly chaotic aggregations of particles. These dis­ coveries led to the formulation of new and important laws cor­ relating the structure of substances with their properties, and to tIlt' explanation of many phenomena in terms of changes in the degree of order.

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Aleksandr Isaakovich Kitaigorodskii (Russian: Александр Исаакович Китайгородский) Soviet crystallographer, author of many science fiction works, popularizer of science, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics (1946), professor (1947). The son of the famous chemical engineer, specialist in silicates and glass, I. I. Kitaigorodsky.

In 1935 he graduated from the Physics Department of Moscow State University. Until June 1941, he headed the X-ray structural laboratory of VIEM. In 1936-1937 - Associate Professor of the Ministry of Economy. In 1938-1940 he taught a course in theoretical physics at the Moscow City Pedagogical Institute.

In 1942-1944 Kitaigorodsky was the head of a department at a branch of the Moscow Oil Institute (MNI); read a course in general physics at the Bashkir Medical Institute. In the same years he worked in Ufa as the head of the physical department of a large defense enterprise. Since 1944 - head of X-ray structural research at the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In 1954-1985 he was the head of the structural analysis laboratory at the Institute of Organoelement Compounds of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1958-1985 he was a professor at the Kolomna Pedagogical Institute. Laureate of the D.I. Mendeleev (1949) and the Prize to them. E.S.Fedorova (1967).

He became the creator of a new direction in science - structural crystallography, as well as the author of the method of atom-atomic potentials and the principle of close packing in molecular crystals. He wrote fundamental books in the field of X-ray structural analysis (X-ray structural analysis, X-ray structural analysis of fine-crystalline and amorphous bodies, Theory of X-ray structural analysis, etc.), translated into many other languages.

He was a talented popularizer of science, his speeches to a wide audience of listeners often took place in crowded halls and ended in heated discussions. The popular science books written by him quickly disappeared from the book shelves (Physics is my profession, Reniks, Physics for all, etc.).

Kitaygorodsky's students include two academicians, more than 10 doctors and 40 candidates of sciences. One of the students is Yu. T. Struchkov.