Latest News

<p>An illustrated collage composed of all the diffraction data gathered at the SACLA. (Credit: Nate Hohman/University of Connecticut)</p>

Crystallography for the Misfit Crystals

As the name implies, crystallography requires crystals – specifically, purified samples of the molecule of interest, coaxed into a crystal form. But most molecules form powders composed of jumbled granules, not picture-ready crystals. A new computer algorithm, combined with a state-of-the-art laser, can adapt X-ray crystallography for the many not-so-neat-and-tidy compounds that scientists seek to study.