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Modern Crystallography @ Jewel Info 4 U
By:Ritika
Summary: The origins of
crystallography lie in morphology
which deals with the study of
mineral crystals and also anisotropy
which details the physical
attributes of mineral crystals.
The physical and chemical attributes
of solids have a strong association
with crystal structure. It is also
vital to know in this scenario that
chemical compounds crystallize only
under given conditions and that too
for certain defined structures. From
such behavior, it is clear that the
branch of crystallography is closely
related to and has strong
association with several neighboring
branches like solid state physics
which deals with ideal structures
and attributes and crystal physics,
materials science which is about
real structures and attributes,
earth sciences which details the
real structure of crystals, solid
state chemistry that deals with
ideal structure sand bonding,
pharmacy, molecular biology which
deals with structure of proteins and
so on.
Crystallography and its
Association with Other Branches
The origins of crystallography lie
in morphology which deals with the
study of mineral crystals and also
anisotropy which details the
physical attributes of mineral
crystals. So with this idea, most of
the European countries have
associated crystallography with the
branch of earth science. In 1912,
Laue discovered the concept of X-ray
diffraction and after this there was
a major shift in the branch of
crystallography. That is, after the
discovery of x-ray diffraction the
branch of crystallography was
associated with the branch of
structure analysis. This turned
chemists into major users and they
all benefited from the branch of
crystallography.
In recent modern days, there is a
great growth in the branch of
structure analysis, in particular,
the growth rate of biological
macromolecules and drug design is
higher. This contributes towards the
growth in the branch of bio
crystallography. Even the material
science branch, which has strong
association with our day-to-day
life, contributes a lot towards the
growth in the branch of
crystallography. For instance, new
techniques created for the
development of crystal growth like
laser crystals all contribute
towards the higher success rate of
the branch of crystallography.
One of the important applications to
mention using modern crystallography
is the making of crystal skulls.
Crystal skulls are a metaphor that
reality is a consciousness hologram
through which we experience
virtually. A crystal skull is a
model of a human skull fashioned
mostly out of quartz crystal, with
some exceptions, for example Chinese
jade skulls. Crystal skulls can be
made in various sizes ranging from a
few inches to the size of an actual
human head, or even larger. The age
of any skull may be determined with
the age of the crystal that was used
to create it. Factors like the year
the skull was carved or the point of
origin is not important in
determining the age of the skull.
Crystal skulls are usually linked to
ancient Mesoamerican cultures,
specifically the Maya which in turn
directs us to the Mayan Long
Calendar and its associated
prophecies. Several crystal skulls
are created at definite angles that
represent the nature of the quartz
crystal that has been used and
overall, a union of revered
geometry. In modern crystallography,
the first procedure is always to
determine the axis, to prevent
fracturing and breakage during the
subsequent shaping process.
Modern crystallography has
interesting debates and questions
associated with it, like the reason
for crystal species taking on a
variety of external forms. The
observation of J. Kepler in 1611
paved the way for the concept of
observational crystallography. The
interesting fact to note is that
both structural crystallography and
the science of crystal growth
emerged from curiosity about the
large variety in crystal forms.
There are various factors associated
in the generation of varied crystal
forms. Some of the factors are
complex, namely internal (also
referred to as structural) and
external (also termed as
environmental) which control the
crystal growth process.
Crystallography in general, deals
with the branch of science that
details the structure and bonding of
atoms in solids that are of
crystalline nature, coupled with the
geometric structure of crystal
lattices. Modern crystallography is
broadly sourced from the study of
the diffraction of X-rays when
crystals act as optical gratings.
With the use of X-ray
crystallography, chemists can now
ascertain the internal configuration
and bonding structures of molecules
& minerals. In fact, X-ray
crystallography could be even used
to determine the structures of large
complex molecules. That is,
Crystallography is the science
concerned with the study of
crystals. Modern crystallography is
intimately linked with the ability
of crystals to diffract X-rays. This
resulting diffracting x-rays is used
to study in detail the structure of
the crystal along with 3D molecular
structure of the crystalline
material. For the in-depth study,
the first process to be taken is the
crystallization of the macromolecule
which are then mounted in a
capillary tube and placed in an
X-ray beam. The resulting
diffraction pattern from this
process is collected and analyzed to
obtain the structure of the protein.
Modern crystallography has a very
interdisciplinary attribute with a
holistic approach. Crystallographers
like to study about physical
attributes of a crystal, special
effects, due to the chemist
synthesis in terms of all facets of
the same object called crystal.
Crystallographers like to study the
above attributes to locate a steady
view of connections between the
structure, properties and chemical
composition of a crystal. These are
all well studied and detailed using
modern crystallography. For
instance, for excellent and exact
structure determination, the
mandatory requirement is the
availability of powerful and bright
synchrotron radiation. In fact, the
above could be studied in depth by
using X-ray laser. The detailed
exact in depth study of molecular
structure of biological
macromolecules has made the branch
of modern crystallography to be
popularly applied to the branch of
Biology.
The study of quartz by Nicolas Steno
in the 17th century paved the way
for the concept of the interesting
and powerful branch - Modern
Crystallography. According to
Nicolas Steno, in whatever manner
the quartz crystal gets distorted,
the long prism faces always made a
perfect 60 degree angle. The
discovery of quasi-crystals which
was based on the concept termed as
pentagonal or icosahedron symmetry
by a physicist named Dan Shechtman
in 1982, marked the greatest
discoveries of modern
crystallography. This is because
quasi crystals generalize and finish
the definition of a crystal.
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