Phi (1.6) Found at Quantum Level: Major Breakthrough?

[markyg]

So I've read that phi (1.6) has been found at the quantum level, and from what I've been told this is a major breakthrough. But I fail to see the relevance. I was wondering if anyone felt that this is a major breakthrough, and could explain this to me?

edit: posting link to article http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/01/07/golden.ratio.discovered.a.quantum.world

 

[ZapperZ]

It's a phase transition into a particular symmetry state in a cobalt niobate compound. The actual paper was published in Science this past Friday:

R. Coldea et al., Science v.327, p. 177 (2010).

A brief review can be found at PhysicsWorld:

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/41373

Zz.