Diffraction and the Solid State

During the period when Polanyi was working on surface adsorption, he pursued investigations in other areas as well, including, from the very beginning of his tenure in Berlin, X-ray diffraction studies of solid materials. On first arriving in Berlin, when Polanyi had wanted to work in the field of reaction velocities, Haber admonished him Reaction velocity is a world problem. You should cook a piece of meat. [36] 

Herzog was sufficiently impressed that he put Polanyi in charge of a research group that was to develop X-ray diffraction studies of both natural fibers and metals. 

Polanyi and Mark discovered the slip properties of single-crystal tin, while Schmid worked out a law for the shear stress component along the slip direction in a slip plane. [44] 

Polanyi s solid-state work, carried out in an institute with significant ties to 

Even more disturbing to Polanyi than the views of his colleagues in organic chemistry was the reaction by his colleagues in physics and physical chemistry to his work in X-ray diffraction studies. Again, relying on Mark  

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