SftP's Contemporary Science 4/30/13. Paul Steinhardt, PhD, is the Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton University, and the Director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science. Professor Steinhardt is a faculty member of both the Department of Physics and Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton. In this program Dr. Steinhardt discusses two of his major research projects, both of which have changed our view of nature. First is the cyclic model of the universe that he and Neil Turok developed, which is a correction of the familiar inflationary model (which Steinhardt also helped to develop). Second is a discussion of the quasicrystal, a structure originally thought to be impossible. Steinhardt and Dov Levine worked out a theoretical version and Steinhardt later actually tracked a sample down. This accomplishment is described here as an amazing adventure. In the end, the quasicrystal was traced to rocks that were formed at the very beginning of the solar system.