#x-ray crystallography

[lindahall]

William Astbury – Scientist of the Day

William Thomas Astbury, an English physicist and molecular biologist, died June 4, 1961, at the age of 63.

read more...

[mindblowingscience]

Researchers capture elusive missing step in the final act of photosynthesis | SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

After decades of effort, scientists have finally seen the process by which nature creates the oxygen we breathe using SLAC’s X-ray laser.

Photosynthesis plays a crucial role in shaping and sustaining life on Earth, yet many aspects of the process remain a mystery. One such mystery is how Photosystem II, a protein complex in plants, algae and cyanobacteria, harvests energy from sunlight and uses it to split water, producing the oxygen we breathe. Now researchers from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, together with collaborators from Uppsala University, Humboldt University, and other institutions have succeeded in cracking a key secret of Photosystem II.

Using SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser (SACLA) in Japan, they captured for the first time in atomic detail what happens in the final moments leading up to the release of breathable oxygen. The data reveal an intermediate reaction step that had not been observed before.

The results, published today in Nature, shed light on how nature has optimized photosynthesis and are helping scientists develop artificial photosynthetic systems that mimic photosynthesis to harvest natural sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into hydrogen and carbon-based fuels.

Continue Reading

[intelligentliving]

New Drug That Targets Common Cancer Cause Begins Clinical Trial

A promising new cancer drug that targets tumors caused by mutations in the KRAS gene is entering phase 2 clinical trials and being fast-tracked by the FDA.

[micro2macro]

D O R O T H Y  H O D G K I N  

i n  t h e  1 9 2 0 s 

‘ at the sir john leman school in beccles, england, dorothy crowfoot hodgkin and her friend norah pusey, were the only two  girls in the chemistry class. they had to petition to take chemistry  rather than ‘domestic science’ with the other girls. ‘

in 1964 she won the nobel prize in chemistry.

[xplorah]

my contribution to the community

[nomadpostgrad]

One of the in house crystallographers taught me how to use the X-ray diffractometer XRD is awesome!

[elvisomar]

Dame Kathleen Lonsdale

(1903–1971) X-Ray Crystallographer

Dame Kathleen Yardley Lonsdale was an Irish crystallographer who proved the benzene molecular ring in hexamethylbenzene is flat. She was the first crystallographer to use Fourier’s spectral methods in analysis. She was one of the first two women elected Fellow of the Royal Society and first female tenured professor at University College, London.

Number 257 in an (infrequently) ongoing series celebrating remarkable women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

[silentambassadors]

Rest in peace, Dorothy Hodgkin.  Awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work in X-ray crystallography, Hodgkin also confirmed the structure of penicillin and deciphered the structure of insulin during her long career as a chemist.  Born in Cairo to an educator father and archaeologist mother, Hodgkin was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 24, was acquainted (through her husband) with Kwame Nkrumah, and (rather unfortunately) wrote the foreword of a book purported to be by Elena Ceausescu.  Nevertheless, she was the only woman honored by the Royal Mail in its Royal Society commemorative stamps issue (above, right) (she was elected as a Fellow in 1947), and her contributions to our scientific understanding of the world continue to inspire and influence contemporary and future scientists.  She died on this date in 1994 at the age of 84.

Stamp details: Stamp on left: Issued on: August 6, 1996 From: London, England MC #1647

Stamp on right: Issued on: February 25, 2010 From: London, England MC #2896