Peter Mueller discovery was like the fall of the Alhambra Palace , a scientist says . Shechtman `` tore apart what we thought we knew , '' Peter Mueller of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says . Western tile patterns hundreds of years old help explain the discovery . The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is worth 10 million Swedish kronor .
Daniel Shechtman 's discovery was like the fall of the Berlin Wall , a scientist says . Shechtman `` tore apart what we thought we knew , '' Peter Mueller of MIT says . Islamic tile patterns hundreds of years old help explain the discovery . The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is worth about $ 1.44 million .