Latest Crystallography Stories

Determining the molecular configuration of proteins is important in nanotechology, drug design, disease research and many other fieldsThe structures of many protein molecules remain unsolved even after experts apply an extensive array of approaches. An international collaboration has led to a new, high-performance method that rapidly determined the structure of protein molecules in several cases where previous methods had failed.The usefulness of the new method is reported May 1 in Nature...

Rice University team creates database of 2.6 million varieties of molecular sievesSome people collect stamps and coins, but when it comes to sheer utility, few collections rival the usefulness of Rice University researcher Michael Deem's collection of 2.6 million zeolite structures.Zeolites are materials -- including some natural minerals -- that act as molecular sieves, thanks to a Swiss-cheese-like arrangement of pores that can sort, filter, trap and chemically process everything from drugs...

New insights into why and how nanowires take the form they do will have profound implications for the development of future electronic components. PhD student Peter Krogstrup from the Nano-Science Center at the University of Copenhagen is behind the sensational new theoretical model, which is developed in collaboration with researchers from CINAM-CNRS in Marseille.One of the most important components in future electronic devices will likely be based on nanocrystals, which are smaller than the...

For the first time, scientists from Empa and ETH Zurich have, in collaboration with a Dutch team, managed to measure the atomic structure of individual nanoparticles. The technique, recently published in "Nature", could help better understand the properties of nanoparticles in future.In chemical terms, nanoparticles have different properties from their "big brothers and sisters": they have a large surface area in relation to their tiny mass and at the same time a small...

Arizona State University builds protein beam injector; contributes nanocrystalsUnraveling the molecular basis of life is an age-old quest of humanity. A breakthrough towards this goal was reported in a pair of studies published Feb. 3 in the scientific journal Nature, detailing a new method developed to determine structures of biomolecules based on diffraction from protein nanocrystals that are so small that they are not even visible under the microscope. A tiny aerojet nozzle provides a...

Polymer-based photovoltaic cells have some real advantages compared to the currently used semiconductor-based cells. They are easy to make and the materials are cheap. The challenge is to figure out how to make efficient cells while keeping the manufacturing cost low.One approach uses a light-absorbing polymer along with a derivative of a sixty-carbon fullerene molecule, commonly known as a buckyball. For maximum efficiency, the two materials must be present in thin layers near opposite...

Because one of the main bottlenecks in determining the structure of protein molecules is producing good isolated single crystals, improved crystallization techniques would be useful in a wide range of genomics and pharmaceutical research.Research reported in The Journal of Chemical Physics uses fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to investigate the processes at the surface of a growing crystal. By focusing a laser on the crystal surface and measuring the resulting fluorescence, FCS...

Chemists from New York University and Russia's St. Petersburg State University have created crystals that can twist and untwist, pointing to a much more varied process of crystal growth than previously thought. Their work, which appears in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, may explain some of the properties of high-polymers, which are used in clothing and liquid crystal displays, among other consumer products.Crystal growth has traditionally been viewed as a...

SAN FRANCISCO, July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- World leading X-ray analytical instrument manufacturer, PANalytical (Almelo, The Netherlands) has changed the game in multi-purpose X-ray diffraction (XRD) with the launch of its Empyrean high-performance diffractometer this year. Solar related applications for the Empyrean, such as depth profiling for phase identification, film thickness, thin film stress, and epitaxial composition and relaxation. PANalytical will be exhibiting at Intersolar North...

X-ray diffraction microscopy provides the best resolution yetA team of scientists working at beamline 9.0.1 of the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has used x-ray diffraction microscopy to make images of whole yeast cells, achieving the highest resolution"”11 to 13 nanometers (billionths of a meter)"”ever obtained with this method for biological specimens. Their success indicates that full 3-D tomography of whole cells at...