tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/x-ray-diffraction-7954/articles
X-ray diffraction – The Conversation
2020-07-20T15:23:17Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/139249
2020-07-20T15:23:17Z
2020-07-20T15:23:17Z
Sexism pushed Rosalind Franklin toward the scientific sidelines during her short life, but her work still shines on her 100th birthday
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347997/original/file-20200716-27-pvrhh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C62%2C508%2C414&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rosalind Franklin at age 25.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw62981/Rosalind-Franklin?">Elliott & Fry/© National Portrait Gallery, London</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What do coal, viruses and DNA have in common? The structures of each – the predominant power source of the early 20th century, one of the most remarkable forms of life on Earth and the master molecule of heredity – were all elucidated by one person. Her name was Rosalind Franklin, and the story of her triumph over sexism and rise to scientific greatness is made even more remarkable by the fact that she lived only 37 years.</p>
<p>In Franklin’s day, <a href="https://www.stsci.edu/stsci/meetings/WiA/schieb.pdf">sexism ran rampant</a> in science. <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060985080/rosalind-franklin/">Her own father</a>, judging science no career for a woman, actively discouraged her aspirations. Her doctoral supervisor at Cambridge, eventual Nobel Laureate <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060985080/rosalind-franklin/">Ronald G.W. Norrish</a>, called her “stubborn and difficult to supervise” and offered little support. <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393950755">James Watson</a>, whose Nobel Prize hinged in large part on her work, referred to her in his <a href="http://sites.bu.edu/manove-ec101/files/2017/09/Watson_The_Double_Helix.pdf">memoir</a> as “Rosy” (against her preference), and stated that, because of her “belligerent moods,” colleagues knew she “either had to go or be put in her place.” </p>
<p>Despite the attitudes of those around her, Franklin maintained her scientific acumen and thirst for knowledge, crucially contributing to one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century.</p>
<h2>Becoming a chemist</h2>
<p>Franklin was <a href="https://www.wwnorton.co.uk/books/9780393320442-rosalind-franklin-and-dna">born in London on July 25, 1920</a> to a prominent family. Her great uncle served in the British Cabinet, and her father was a banker and science educator.</p>
<p>Franklin was an outstanding student. She received a scholarship to Cambridge, where she earned honors on her examinations and won a research fellowship. A lack of rapport with her supervisor, Norrish, drove her from his lab, and she ended up conducting groundbreaking research for her Ph.D. thesis on the <a href="https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/kr/feature/coal">molecular structure of coal</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348007/original/file-20200716-27-1d05cs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman looking into microscope" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348007/original/file-20200716-27-1d05cs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348007/original/file-20200716-27-1d05cs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348007/original/file-20200716-27-1d05cs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348007/original/file-20200716-27-1d05cs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348007/original/file-20200716-27-1d05cs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348007/original/file-20200716-27-1d05cs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348007/original/file-20200716-27-1d05cs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rosalind Franklin in the lab.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rosalind_Franklin.jpg">MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology/Jenifer Glynn</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Franklin then moved to Paris, where she studied X-ray crystallography, a powerful means of inferring the structure of molecules from how they bend beams of X-rays. She produced a <a href="https://wellcomelibrary.org/collections/digital-collections/makers-of-modern-genetics/digitised-archives/rosalind-franklin/">number of important articles</a> before returning to the U.K.</p>
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<p>Assigned to work on the structure of DNA in her new position at King’s College London, she applied her knowledge of X-ray diffraction and created crucial images of its molecular structure. At the time, determining DNA’s structure was one of science’s holy grails.</p>
<h2>Structure of life’s molecule</h2>
<p>Recalling a moment in 1953, <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393950755">Watson described</a> first seeing one of Franklin’s images of the DNA molecule, known as “Photograph 51”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The instant I saw the picture my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race. The pattern was unbelievably simpler from those obtained previously. Moreover, the black cross of reflections which dominated the picture could only arise from a helical structure.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348143/original/file-20200717-23-ryev4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sketch of X-ray shining through DNA sample with resulting crystallograph and double helix structure" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348143/original/file-20200717-23-ryev4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348143/original/file-20200717-23-ryev4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348143/original/file-20200717-23-ryev4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348143/original/file-20200717-23-ryev4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348143/original/file-20200717-23-ryev4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348143/original/file-20200717-23-ryev4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348143/original/file-20200717-23-ryev4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Diagram of Franklin’s experimental setup aiming X-ray through DNA sample with resulting ‘Photograph 51’ that implied the double-helix structure of the molecule.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Experimental_setup_of_Photo_51.svg">MagentaGreen/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Watson and his Cambridge collaborator and eventual fellow Nobel Laureate Francis Crick were not doing laboratory research on the structure of DNA, but they were actively attempting to build a model of it. Franklin’s image provided them with a breakthrough. Franklin was a <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2018/08/rosalind-franklin-and-damage-gender-harassment">cautious scientist</a>, believing that modeling should await airtight scientific evidence. But Watson and Crick were less hesitant and became convinced that their double helix model must be correct.</p>
<p>In 1953, when Watson and Crick <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0">announced their now famous double helix model</a> for DNA, tensions at King’s College were driving Franklin to Birkbeck College. She joined John Bernal, an X-ray crystallographer known for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/57/1/006">promoting the careers of women</a>. </p>
<p>There Franklin worked on characterizing the structure of RNA, another key information-bearing molecule in living organisms. She also studied the tobacco mosaic virus, the first virus shown to be harmful to a living organism, the tobacco plant.</p>
<p>During a trip to the U.S. in 1956, Franklin <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060985080/rosalind-franklin/">first noticed</a> that she was having difficulty fitting into her clothes. Upon her return to London, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, the result of mutations in the DNA of her own cells. Yet she did not let her illness interfere with her work and published a half dozen or more scientific papers in both 1956 and 1957. She died in April of 1958.</p>
<p>Franklin faced sexism for much of her professional life in science. Watson repeatedly described her in sexist terms in “<a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393950755">The Double Helix</a>,” criticizing her “choice” not to “emphasize her feminine qualities” and her lack of “even a mild interest in clothes.” Moreover, he and Crick chose not to reveal the extent to which their model depended on her DNA photograph.</p>
<p>Even in this atmosphere, Franklin was a great scientist, as captured in this passage from her <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/182154a0">obituary</a>, composed by her mentor, Bernal:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>She was distinguished by extreme clarity and perfection in everything she undertook. Her photographs are among the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken…. Her early death is a great loss to science.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Franklin’s reputation grew after death</h2>
<p>Franklin certainly did not sink into obscurity.</p>
<p>One of her students, eventual Nobelist <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1982/summary/">Aaron Klug</a>, continued her work, helping to develop a new form of crystallography that relies on electrons instead of X-rays and advancing the understanding of the structure of viruses.</p>
<p>And of course initial skepticism about a double helix structure for DNA waned. Watson, Crick and another X-ray crystallography researcher at King’s College, Maurice Wilkins, received the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1962/summary/">Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine</a> in 1962 for its identification. </p>
<p>Many have wondered why Franklin did not receive the Nobel Prize. First, she was never nominated, perhaps in part because of her gender. Another problem was the fact that the prize cannot be divided among more than three people, though <a href="https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/james-watson-francis-crick-maurice-wilkins-and-rosalind-franklin">some historians have argued</a> that she deserved it more than Wilkins. Perhaps the most decisive reason is that Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously.</p>
<p>Franklin has been memorialized in many ways. <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/aboutkings/history/famouspeople/wilkinsfranklin">King’s College</a> and <a href="https://www.alliesandmorrison.com/projects/rosalind-franklin-building">Cambridge University</a> both created residence halls in her name, and <a href="http://www.bbk.ac.uk/biology/our-research/research-facilities/rosalind-franklin">Birkbeck</a> established the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory. Her portrait now hangs next to those of Watson, Crick and Wilkins in the <a href="https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp58704/rosalind-elsie-franklin">National Portrait Gallery</a> in London.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BziZMHeBvAM/?igshid=1ufwhujl34l0y","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>And outside of Chicago is the <a href="https://www.rosalindfranklin.edu/">Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science</a>, which uses photograph 51 as its logo.</p>
<p>Franklin saw herself less as a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01399">female scientific pioneer</a> than as a researcher whose work should be assessed purely in the light of her scientific contributions. Although she was not focused on gender, perhaps her greatest and most <a href="https://www.rosalindfranklin.edu/about/facts-figures/dr-rosalind-franklin/">enduring legacy</a> is the many women who have been inspired by her example to pursue scientific careers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139249/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Gunderman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Franklin was born a century ago, and her X-ray crystallography work crucially contributed to determining the structure of DNA.
Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/41011
2015-05-15T10:16:30Z
2015-05-15T10:16:30Z
Jumbled arrangement of atoms allows bulk metallic glasses to flow like honey
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81605/original/image-20150513-2497-1gee14g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What properties allow lab-made metals to flow like liquids (as in this digital art)?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://balakanu.deviantart.com/art/Liquid-Metal-265150410">Balakanu</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Metals are one of the most-used materials in the modern built world, found in everything from buildings to aircraft to smartphones. While most metals are mined from the earth, scientists have recently created a new generation of metals in the lab. These so-called bulk metallic glasses have unique properties. They’re stronger and harder than conventional metals, but can be formed like plastics. This sounds astonishing. What’s behind their special characteristics?</p>
<p>To the naked eye, these lab-made materials look like regular metals, but are smoother and very shiny. The secret behind their unusual properties has to do with their structure on an atomic level. My colleagues (at <a href="http://www.lmw.uni-saarland.de/index.php/36.html">UdS</a> and <a href="http://mime.oregonstate.edu/people/kruzic">OSU</a>) and I undertook <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4919590">new research</a> using high-energy X-ray light to unravel some of their mysteries. We have identified the relationship between bulk metallic glasses’ atomic-scale structure and their visible-scale viscous flow – essentially what allows them to flow like thick honey or thin water.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80620/original/image-20150506-5480-h3mvjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80620/original/image-20150506-5480-h3mvjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80620/original/image-20150506-5480-h3mvjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80620/original/image-20150506-5480-h3mvjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80620/original/image-20150506-5480-h3mvjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80620/original/image-20150506-5480-h3mvjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80620/original/image-20150506-5480-h3mvjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80620/original/image-20150506-5480-h3mvjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rods of bulk metallic glasses made by M Stolpe in the laboratory of Chair for Metallic Materials of Prof. R Busch at Saarland University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shuai Wei</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Super strong and can also flow</h2>
<p>Bulk metallic glasses are made of multiple components, including zirconium, copper, nickel, aluminum, gold and platinum. They exhibit very high strength. If you tear, bend or press a piece of one of these metals, it is so strong that deforming it permanently is very difficult. It can store much more deformation energy than any other metals, making it an ideal spring material.</p>
<p>But what makes bulk metallic glasses unique is that their great strength is combined with the ability to flow like a thick liquid when in a special supercooled liquid state that regular metals cannot reach. When heated to a certain temperature range, they flow like viscous liquid. This makes it possible to mold these special metals by hot-forming processing typically used for traditional glasses and plastics. In principle, you can even blow the metals as you would with bottle glasses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81601/original/image-20150513-2468-aay2x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81601/original/image-20150513-2468-aay2x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81601/original/image-20150513-2468-aay2x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81601/original/image-20150513-2468-aay2x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81601/original/image-20150513-2468-aay2x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81601/original/image-20150513-2468-aay2x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=703&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81601/original/image-20150513-2468-aay2x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=703&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81601/original/image-20150513-2468-aay2x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=703&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Atoms in an organized, repeating crystal lattice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TiC-xtal-3D-vdW.png">Ben Mills</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All metals in nature have a regular, repeating arrangement of atoms, where atoms are stacked up almost uniformly in a three-dimensional lattice. In contrast, these lab-made bulk metallic glasses have a more or less random atomic arrangement. This is because they are made by cooling heated liquid material so fast that atoms are “frozen-in” at their current positions; it maintains the amorphous structure of a liquid.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81610/original/image-20150513-2497-13zbfh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81610/original/image-20150513-2497-13zbfh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81610/original/image-20150513-2497-13zbfh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=214&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81610/original/image-20150513-2497-13zbfh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=214&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81610/original/image-20150513-2497-13zbfh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=214&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81610/original/image-20150513-2497-13zbfh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81610/original/image-20150513-2497-13zbfh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81610/original/image-20150513-2497-13zbfh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Computer simulation of atoms in the more or less random amorphous structure of bulk metallic glasses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Y. Q. Cheng, E. Ma, and H. W. Sheng from Phys. Rev. Lett.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Normal metals suffer from certain defects that widely exist in their regular, crystalline structure. When a force is applied, those defects help the planes of organized atoms slip past each other; thus, these alloys can fairly easily be permanently deformed. This does not happen in bulk metallic glasses since their atoms are all mixed up, not organized in an orderly grid. Their structure means they can resist much larger deformation or force until their shape is permanently changed.</p>
<p>But what’s really unusual about bulk metallic glasses is their ability to flow like a thick liquid in their supercooled liquid state – a unique state they can stay in quite stably, while almost impossible for conventional metals to reach. To get a bulk metallic glass into this unusual state, you heat it to a certain temperature range – usually a bit more than two-thirds of the way to its melting point – the so-called supercooled liquid region. The rising temperature unfreezes the atoms so they can move around. They behave like a liquid, but a very thick, slow-flowing one. Making use of this special viscous flow region, scientists are able to form and shape the geometries of bulk metallic glasses into complex shapes by, for example, “<a href="http://www.schroerslab.com/research/processing-of-bmgs/another-sub-item-of-processing-bmgs">blow molding</a>,” something other modes of metal processing cannot manage. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r71t-FSoFAI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Luxury watchmakers love the strength and moldability of these materials.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s these special properties that make bulk metallic glasses so appealing for consumer electronics applications. Back in 2010, the technology giant Apple reached an <a href="http://www.microcapdaily.com/a-close-look-at-liquidmetal-technologies-inc-otcbblqmt/19658/">exclusive agreement</a> with Liquidmetal Technologies for using bulk metallic glasses in their products, and Apple itself keeps filing patents on the new material. Luxury watchmaker Swatch Group has already used the unusual metals in their top-end brand <a href="http://www.omegawatches.com/planet-omega/watchmaking/liquidmetal">Omega</a>. These manufacturers value their strength and being able to mold them into precise complex shapes for small components.</p>
<h2>Strap on the X-ray specs</h2>
<p>It’s been a big puzzle why bulk metallic glasses can be viscous. And what makes some compositions more viscous than others? To investigate, we used an extremely intense X-ray light source to look at the materials on a nanometer scale – a billionth of a meter. We wanted to observe how the atoms arrange themselves.</p>
<p>We used the particle accelerator <a href="http://petraiii.desy.de/">PETRA III at DESY</a>, the world’s most brilliant radiation source, to generate the light. The X-ray beam is not only billions of times brighter than what’s used in hospitals, universities or industrial laboratories, but also extremely tightly focused with a very short wavelength. Such a light can detect even tiny changes in atomic positions. The detection process is fast enough that we can monitor the structural changes every one second and as we raise the temperature degree by degree. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I found that the atomic arrangement in bulk metallic glass-forming liquids shows much order within about one nanometer. With increasing temperature, the structure at some distances expands much faster than at others, and does so in an inconsistent way. More interestingly, atoms at certain distances are more “important” than others, because they are key players in determining the ability of viscous flow.</p>
<p>We pinpointed the key distance to be equivalent to about three to four atomic diameters. If atoms in one bulk metallic glass arrange themselves in such a way that the local volume around those atoms at the key distance expands faster with rising temperature than in another bulk metallic glass, its supercooled liquid is much “thinner” or easier to flow than that of the other.</p>
<p>This shows the origin of the viscous flow ability in atomic-scale structure and explains what atomic arrangement can make one composition more viscous than another. The slower the atoms develop their particular complex order at that crucial three to four atomic diameters distance, the more viscous the material is. With this knowledge of structure, it becomes possible to predict viscosity by knowing the atomic arrangement of a bulk metallic glass and simulating the movement of atoms by computer – before making it in a laboratory.</p>
<p>Our finding suggests how in the future we might tailor desired properties by engineering atomic-scale structures in this new generation of metals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41011/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shuai Wei receives funding from Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation. </span></em></p>
These laboratory-made metals have unusual properties that consumer electronics manufacturers love. New research used high-energy X-rays to figure out why.
Shuai Wei, Feodor Lynen Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Chemistry, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/32198
2014-11-06T09:49:08Z
2014-11-06T09:49:08Z
Scientists at work: my other office is on Mars
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/61750/original/ddxb5xn9-1413332657.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The author posing with a fully-functional model of the Curiosity rover on Earth, not Mars.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“All systems go!” I said cautiously with a long sigh of relief. I had approved plans for the first soil analysis that would give humankind clues to the past and future habitability of Mars.</p>
<p>One small word for man, perhaps, but I still faced a long night of command sequencing that would determine the success or failure of this operation. Only days later, the groundbreaking result would be transmitted back to earth: the first X-ray diffraction pattern from a world other than our own.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62913/original/t7x97m2x-1414439028.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62913/original/t7x97m2x-1414439028.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62913/original/t7x97m2x-1414439028.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62913/original/t7x97m2x-1414439028.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62913/original/t7x97m2x-1414439028.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62913/original/t7x97m2x-1414439028.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62913/original/t7x97m2x-1414439028.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62913/original/t7x97m2x-1414439028.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">First x-ray view of Martian soil: crystalline feldspar, pyroxene and olivine present.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16217">NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ames</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Earth science far from Earth</h2>
<p>I know what you’re thinking: this is not a normal day-in-the-life of a mineralogy graduate student. And you’re right about that! I never dreamed that my love of rocks, crystals, and the atomic scale would lead me to be part of a NASA mission, let alone one as important as the Mars Science Laboratory.</p>
<p>Yet, beginning my second year of graduate school, I found myself at the NASA Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) sitting side-by-side with NASA personnel and an esteemed cadre of international scientists, watching the harrowing “seven-minutes-of-terror” landing of the largest and most advanced rover ever sent to another planet.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OHwUrxzrvtg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Curiosity’s Entry, Descent and Landing once it reached Mars was nicknamed the Seven Minutes of Terror.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now that the Curiosity rover had safely landed, I was conducting science that would change our view of the universe.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62941/original/7pkp47fq-1414458459.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62941/original/7pkp47fq-1414458459.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62941/original/7pkp47fq-1414458459.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62941/original/7pkp47fq-1414458459.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62941/original/7pkp47fq-1414458459.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62941/original/7pkp47fq-1414458459.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62941/original/7pkp47fq-1414458459.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62941/original/7pkp47fq-1414458459.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">CheMin funnel for intaking samples of dirt and rock for analysis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=4660">NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On board the Mars rover is an instrument called CheMin – for Chemistry and Mineralogy. CheMin is the first X-ray diffraction instrument ever sent to space. It shoots X-rays at rock and soil to figure out which minerals they contain, giving us important clues about what Gale Crater, Mars was like millions and even billions of years ago. The Mars Science team also studies other factors that help piece together the life-on-Mars-puzzle: what is in the air, how much radiation is coming from the sun, and how much water is in the soil?</p>
<h2>Grad student by day, PUDL by sol</h2>
<p>How do I fit in to all of this? My mission ops role is a CheMin instrument Payload Uplink/Downlink Lead. So yes, my role is fondly referred to as “poodle” based on its acronym PUDL. As PUDL, I operate the instrument on board Curiosity and also download and evaluate data transmitted back to earth.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63091/original/8z56kc44-1414540721.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63091/original/8z56kc44-1414540721.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63091/original/8z56kc44-1414540721.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63091/original/8z56kc44-1414540721.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63091/original/8z56kc44-1414540721.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63091/original/8z56kc44-1414540721.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63091/original/8z56kc44-1414540721.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63091/original/8z56kc44-1414540721.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Science team members gather in the command center on Earth to manage Curiosity on Mars.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scot Hulme, NASA/JPL-Caltech</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first time I sat in the command center, I was mesmerized. Here instrument operators, plan managers and engineers worked together to develop a single, cohesive plan that would be sent to Curiosity.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62914/original/2kyx6x75-1414439276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62914/original/2kyx6x75-1414439276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62914/original/2kyx6x75-1414439276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62914/original/2kyx6x75-1414439276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62914/original/2kyx6x75-1414439276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62914/original/2kyx6x75-1414439276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62914/original/2kyx6x75-1414439276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62914/original/2kyx6x75-1414439276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Curiosity rover selfie on Mars.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16239">NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After Curiosity landed on August 5, 2012, the MSL Science Team and engineers lived in Pasadena, CA and worked at JPL for the first 90 Mars days. A day on Mars is referred to as a “sol” because it actually lasts a little longer than a day on earth: 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer, to be precise. </p>
<p>That small difference had a dramatic effect on the crew of earth-dwellers attempting to work on Mars time. Earth time and Mars time are almost always out-of-sync, which means that while our work day starts at 9 AM one day, three weeks later it will start at around 9 PM and it’ll be 3 AM after a month. For the first 90 days, our schedules rotated around the clock in this fashion. Needless to say, combining seven days a week of long shifts (16-18 hours, at times) with Mars time meant we all drank a lot of coffee.</p>
<p>To communicate with the rover, we use a relay-system involving the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter and the Mars Odyssey orbiter. When one of the Mars orbiters is positioned closest to earth, we send data to it. Then, when that orbiter flies over the Mars rover, it sends the transmission. In all, it takes about 14 minutes for Curiosity to receive a message from earth. We simply reverse the process to receive information from the rover.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62915/original/ncz7dzqb-1414439929.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62915/original/ncz7dzqb-1414439929.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62915/original/ncz7dzqb-1414439929.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62915/original/ncz7dzqb-1414439929.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62915/original/ncz7dzqb-1414439929.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62915/original/ncz7dzqb-1414439929.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62915/original/ncz7dzqb-1414439929.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62915/original/ncz7dzqb-1414439929.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Photo by Curiosity of some of Mars’ layered geological history.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16105">NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After 90 sols, we transitioned to earth time and moved back to our respective home institutions – the University of Arizona Department of Geosciences, in my case. The team still works together just as we did at JPL, but now we operate remotely. Using screen-sharing software, we create our daily plans and the meetings go exactly as they did when we were all in the same room together. On the teleconference line, each PUDL can discuss or change the plan and will still give his or her “Go!” to approve that day’s activities. </p>
<p>Going in to work everyday takes on a new meaning when your office is on Mars. Working on the Mars Science Lab team has been the most exciting time of my life. Exploring the unknown and searching for answers to the universe’s biggest questions – this is what dreams are made of. My dreams, at least.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32198/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shaunna Morrison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
“All systems go!” I said cautiously with a long sigh of relief. I had approved plans for the first soil analysis that would give humankind clues to the past and future habitability of Mars. One small word…
Shaunna Morrison, PhD Student in Geosciences, University of Arizona
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/27243
2014-06-18T13:24:47Z
2014-06-18T13:24:47Z
X-rays shine light on atoms at work in a chemical reaction
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50853/original/jdprqknm-1402498924.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Not your standard protein.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/orinoco14/5526751677">orinoco14</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For more than 100 years, scientists have “peered” at atoms in a crystal by analysing the way they scatter X-rays. This process, known as <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-x-ray-crystallography-22143">crystallography</a>, reveals the chemical structure of compounds in the crystal and has applications so <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-little-known-science-that-improved-everything-around-us-22452">wide-ranging</a> – from drugs to new materials – that it has become central to how science is done. </p>
<p>But almost all of these advances have depended on revealing the chemical structure of unchanging compounds. However, if Makoto Fujita at the University of Tokyo and his colleagues are proved correct, this may all change. For they have developed a method to capture “images” as chemical reactions happen. The difference is in someways as big as that when cameras went from capturing still images to shooting film.</p>
<h2>Dark magic</h2>
<p>At this very moment, there are billions of chemical reactions taking place in your body. And yet each of these chemical reaction is special, because for it to occur two or more molecules have come in close contact under the right conditions. These “right conditions” are mostly dependent on the energy available in the system. Without enough energy, the necessary movement of electrons will not occur and the reaction will fail. </p>
<p>In nature, the required amount of energy has always been a tricky thing to achieve. To overcome this situation, many biological reactions make use of a catalyst, which does not react with the substances but accelerates the reaction. For instance, your body contains small amounts of manganese, zinc, and copper that are all required as catalysts for key reactions in the body.</p>
<p>Although chemists have known about catalysts for nearly 200 years, we still don’t always understand how they work. Fujita and his colleagues looked at palladium as a catalyst in a reaction where it accelerates the attachment of a bromine atom to a larger molecule. This chemical reaction is quite important commercially, because many useful chemicals, including key drugs and pesticides, contain bromine. </p>
<p>Just as most reactions in your body occur in water, most industrial reactions are carried out in solutions. However, crystallography cannot provide a snapshot of molecules moving in solution. So Fujita trapped the catalyst and reacting molecules in a cage, before taking X-ray snapshots during the reaction. This allowed him to have the molecules “immobile” for enough time to capture in X-ray image.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50506/original/zv2j6try-1402052902.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50506/original/zv2j6try-1402052902.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50506/original/zv2j6try-1402052902.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50506/original/zv2j6try-1402052902.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50506/original/zv2j6try-1402052902.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50506/original/zv2j6try-1402052902.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50506/original/zv2j6try-1402052902.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The X-ray snapshots in the figure show the atomic arrangement of the molecule being brominated before, during, and after the reaction. All contained within the crystalline host, which has been greyed out. Red is the bromine atom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fujita et al/JACS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Using these images Fujuta was able to understand the workings of the catalyst, as he describes in the <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja502996h">Journal of American Chemical Society</a>. More importantly, this work marks a new dawn for crystallography. </p>
<p>The old experiments of “static” crystallography are now so routine that some modern instruments need almost no human input. Now scientists are looking for new challenges. Just as Fujita has shown that it is possible to probe the arrangement of atoms during a reaction, others are trying to monitor the response of a crystal to light, pressure, extremes of temperature, or even an atmosphere of reactive gas. </p>
<p>Mark Warren at the University of Bath and colleagues use something called photocrystallography to show light causes changes in chemical structure. Some of the best chemicals to study this phenomenon are called “coordination compounds”. They consist of a large metal atom surrounded by small molecules, called ligands. Shining light on these can cause a change in the arrangement of the ligands. In this case the ligand was a nitrite ion – a negatively charged molecule that contains nitrogen atom attached to two oxygen atoms (NO<sub>2</sub><sup>−</sup>). </p>
<p>Normally nitrite binds to a metal, in this case nickel, via the nitrogen atom. But, as they report in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chem.201302053">Chemistry – A European Journal</a>, when light of the right wavelength shines upon the crystal, the binding of nitrite changes. The nitrite flips round and binds via one of the oxygen atoms. This changes happens within the crystal. Without new developments in crystallography, we would never have been able to find out about the flip. </p>
<p>This is important because, before the flip, certain types of light pass through the crystal but afterwards these are absorbed. In the future, compounds like this may be incredibly useful as light operated-switches in <a href="https://theconversation.com/first-nano-scale-optical-circuit-built-5537">optical computing</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50512/original/x7bbk6nt-1402058309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50512/original/x7bbk6nt-1402058309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50512/original/x7bbk6nt-1402058309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50512/original/x7bbk6nt-1402058309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50512/original/x7bbk6nt-1402058309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50512/original/x7bbk6nt-1402058309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50512/original/x7bbk6nt-1402058309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Light of wavelength 400 nm causes the nitrite ligand to flip and bind through oxygen. (Nitrogen atoms are colours pink, oxygen atoms are red, and the nickel atom is coloured green)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tim Prior</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This year is the International Year of Crystallography, and with such developments we seem to be approaching a golden age. X-ray sources are becoming brighter than ever before which means experiments that were once impossible are becoming routine. Crystallography played a pivotal role in technological advances in the last 100 years. New experiments should keep it at the forefront of discovery in the next 100. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Next, read this: <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-method-can-image-single-molecules-and-identify-its-atoms-14869">New method can image single molecules and identify its atoms</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27243/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Prior has received funding from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under grant number EP/I028692/1.</span></em></p>
For more than 100 years, scientists have “peered” at atoms in a crystal by analysing the way they scatter X-rays. This process, known as crystallography, reveals the chemical structure of compounds in…
Timothy Prior, Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry, University of Hull
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.