📚💎 Introducing #crystallography at the #kindergarten level! 🔬✨ A center-based activity framework and a children's book to introduce crystallography to young learners 👧👦🌈 doi.org/10.1107/S205... @actacryste.iucr.org #IUCr #Crystallography #STEM #ScienceOutreach

A model for crystallography engagement with children in early elementary school with activities and book development

Introducing crystallography at the kindergarten level is discussed through a center-based activity framework and the development of a children's book for crystallography.

doi.org

We're celebrating 20 years of Acta Crystallographica Section F!🎉🥳 Join us by contributing to our celebratory collection of articles, which is now open for submissions! Find out more at journals.iucr.org/special_issu...

British chemist Dr. Dorothy Hodgkin won the 1964 #Nobel Prize in #Chemistry for using X-ray crystallography to "see" the 3D structures of complex molecules. After 35 years of work, she solved the incredibly complex structure of insulin, 1969. She died #OTD in 1994. #WomenInSTEM

The 1951 Festival Pattern Group transformed X-ray crystallography—including Dorothy Hodgkin’s insulin diagrams—into modern manufacturing designs, blending post-war science and art into innovative national progress.

Chemist & X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin's meticulous research was instrumental in uncovering DNA's molecular structure. Most famous for her role in the DNA double helix discovery, her work also revolutionized our understanding of viruses & coal. She was born #OTD in 1920. #WomenInSTEM 🧵

I wasn’t expecting to see a presidential boy band today… 😂🎤 Four presidents. One song. One reminder that democracy is bigger than any one person! 🇺🇸🎶 AI can be funny & controversial but voting is serious! 🗳️ #SheShed #ViVaHerAlliance #Vote2026

Someone, or some algorithm, at Nature thinks that lithium and graphite are heavy rare earth elements.

New @iucrjournals.bsky.social publication highlights how many crystal structures remain unpublished and shows how simple database deposition can bring them into the public domain, improving research visibility, reducing duplication, and supporting #OpenScience. 🔗 journals.iucr.org/c/issues/202...

We are saddened by the passing of longtime ACA member Dr. Ian David Brown, known to friends and colleagues as David. A pioneer of the bond valence model, he will continue to inspire #structualscientists for generations. Read more on the ACA website: www.amercrystalassn.org/index.php?op...

🧪🔬 Accessible, beginner-friendly dry-lab exercises introduce #undergraduates to crystallographic databases @ccdc.cam.ac.uk and small-molecule structure analysis! 📚✨ doi.org/10.1107/S205... @actacryste.iucr.org #Crystallography #Undergraduate #ChemEd #Education

Accessible introductory exercises to crystallography databases and basic practices for undergraduate students

The description and commentary for a set of simple exercises intended for undergraduate learners. These exercises introduce some basic practices for handling and reporting crystallographic data of sma...

doi.org

-4m2. D2d

Andre the Chemist@andrechemist.bsky.social · last mo.

I did confirm it is not chiral! Pictured below is the same creation arranged to show it is its own mirror image. It is flipped and rotated but otherwise untouched. I'm also pretty sure it has a four-fold improper rotation axis so I'm 90% confident its point group is S4

Neil Kinnock has a message for our next Prime Minister, "We after 10 years after loss and cost and decline, must make the argument, incessantly and continually, to rejoin the European Union" "It. Is. Our. Imperative."

Happy Birthday Stephen! Welcome to the octogenarian community. best wishes Mike Glazer

Prof. Zoë Waller@drzoewaller.bsky.social · last mo.

On Friday we celebrated Prof. Stephen Neidle's 80th Birthday with a special scientific symposium at UCL School of Pharmacy, organised by @shozebhaider.bsky.social @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @fuchtermatt.bsky.social @christinecardin.bsky.social

The latest issue of the @IUCr Newsletter is now available at www.iucr.org/news/newslet... for everyine interested in the wonderful science of #crystallography.

I will continue to be excited by graphs like this one. It shows UK electricity demand over the past 24 hours (white line) and the amount that is supplied by renewables (green). It reached 90% in the middle of the night & was 80% for much of the day. 🎉🎉🎉. Still lots more to do, but we’re on the way.

Oh, and here’s the price during that time.

I really like this new website that visualises the various space groups. spacegroups.symotter.org/group

The IUCr2026 Speaker & Award Schedule is out! Check out who's taking the stage in Calgary this August! Register now & plan your sessions, workshops, & tours before they fill up! 👉 Schedule: event.fourwaves.com/... 👉 Register: event.fourwaves.com/... #IUCr2026 #Crystallography

Visualizing and teaching crystallographic symmetry using Jmol doi.org/10.1107/S205... #OtterbeinStem #StOlaf #Jmol #SpaceGroup #Symmetry #Visualizer #symmetry #visualization #openaccess #IUCr #crystallography

🥳🥳 Excited to see our #crystallography #education & #outreach paper ranked as #TopViewedArticle in 2025 @wiley.com! Grateful for the support from #IUCr and the community. 🙌🔬✨ doi.org/10.1107/S160... @japplcryst.iucr.org #STEM #StructureScience #graduates #undergrads #K12 #Teaching @harvard.edu

@actacrysta Coming soon:-

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrenc...

Lawrence Bragg - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It was lovely to chat with Anu and @charliebondxray.bsky.social about PPR proteins, their RNA binding modes and awesome modularity. Please watch, give the IUCr a thumbs up, and add some comments when you have a minute! What would you like to see in these interviews?

Structural Biology Communications@actacrystf.iucr.org · 3mo ago

In the latest in our Interviews With Authors series, the Acta F Section Editors talk to Anuradha Pullakhandam and Charlie Bond about their review on 'Structures of pentatricopeptide repeat proteins'. Read the article at journals.iucr.org/f/issues/202... www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYcF...

Nobel laureate Dorothy Hodgkin was born 116 years ago today. The legend among legends in crystallography, she cracked the 27 atom structure of penicillin, and then the 181 atom structure of vitamin B12, and THEN the 788 atom structure of insulin. tinyurl.com/yketyrn5 #WomenInSTEM #ChemSky #BioSky

Monarch of Crystallography: Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin and the Structure of Large Molecules.

Two scientists.Two crystallographers.Both successful, but one died young after her most significant discovery was snatched from her, while the other lived to a ripe old age after a string of ground-breaking discoveries and a Nobel Prize. The former, Rosalind Franklin, is a household name. But the latter, in spite of the foundational importance of her work, has always remained on the fringe of our cultural perception: Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994).  It is one of the truly frustrating thing

tinyurl.com

Absolutely! And brings me back to this small piece I wrote not long ago www.iucr.org/news/newslet... ... she was almost certainly in the same place where I took some of the pictures I use in it (Bahia Palace)!

An interesting feature of #FourierTiler is that you can create mosaics resembling actual structures... and if you pick one that consists of a repetition of a single layer, the pattern is strikingly similar to a scientifically accurate one! #Crystallography starts when asking why they are different.

The latest issue of the @IUCr Newsletter is now available at www.iucr.org/news/newslet....

... and before people get scared by the GitHub page: Fourier Tiler is a completely GUI based, user friendly program anyone can play with, and it does not require any installation 😉 Please have also a look at the manual, where I show examples of educational uses of it. github.com/stecanossa/F...

Stefano Canossa@stecanossa.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I'm so happy to finally disclose Fourier Tiler, the software I always wanted to make, so that anyone can experience #Crystallography and #TotalScattering one mesmerizing image at a time! Let your creative curiosity run free in real and reciprocal space! #Braggyourpattern github.com/stecanossa/F...

And of course now anyone can flood Bluesky with their custom patterns... add the tag #FourierTiler so people don't miss any and can find them back! And of coruse, let's saturate #Braggyourpattern as well 😏

Stefano Canossa@stecanossa.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I'm so happy to finally disclose Fourier Tiler, the software I always wanted to make, so that anyone can experience #Crystallography and #TotalScattering one mesmerizing image at a time! Let your creative curiosity run free in real and reciprocal space! #Braggyourpattern github.com/stecanossa/F...

Time for a second casual #crystallography tip: peak tables in lattice viewers are not showing you the reciprocal space of the crystal, but just some intensity maxima! If you think it's a detail, I have a section and a figure explaining why in my recent tutorial review: pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Stefano Canossa@stecanossa.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Every now and then I might post important concepts on single crystal diffraction analysis from my recent review. Today, this wrapped-up version of figure 1 reminds us what we lose in the process, and what we actually gain at the end: a model 💎 #crystallography #MOFs pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...