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Crystallography News British Crystallographic Association Crystallography News British Crystallographic Association Issue No. 125 June 2013 ISSN 1467-2790 Coming soon: ECM28 AGM of the BCA p6 Bragg Centenary Events p9 Bursary Recipientsʼ Reports p15 Worldwide Protein Data Bank p16 News from the Groups p20 EXPERIENCE TRUE BRILLIANCE Confidence means a revolutionary high-brilliance X-ray system that meets the needs of the most challenging crystallography projects. Agilent’s new GV1000 X-ray diffractometer represents a major leap forward in the generation of X-rays for demanding structural biology applications. The GV1000 combines novel approaches in all core source components, with innovative gradient vacuum technology affording an extremely compact, quiet and high-brilliance X-ray source. See macromolecular structures in a whole new light with the brilliant new Agilent GV1000 X-ray diffractometer. Learn more at www.agilent.com/lifesciences/GV1000. Discover the powerful new features in Agilent’s CrysAlisPro software. Register for our 2013 Software and Applications Webinar Series at www.agilent.com/chem/xray_eSeminars © Agilent Technologies, Inc. 2013 PDF-4/Organics 2013 What’s in your sample? Verify your results with PDF-4/Organics A comprehensive materials database featuring 471,257 organic and organometallic compounds. Designed for rapid materials identifi cation Polymorph screening Quality control Drug & Excipients identifi cation Formulation analysis Quantitative analysis Polymorph identifi cation Crystallite size COMPREHENSIVE ❖ STANDARDIZED ❖ QUALITY REVIEW www.icdd.com | marketing @icdd.com 610.325.9814 | toll-free 866.378.9331 (U.S. & Canada) ICDD, the ICDD logo and PDF are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Offi ce. Powder Diff raction File is a trademark of JCPDS—International Centre for Diff raction Data. Going small smaller beam, smaller footprint, smaller maintenance costs means big results Introducing the new DECTRIS PILATUS 200K • Rigaku’s Compact HomeLab features the Rigaku Compact HomeLab™ PILATUS 200K - a true photon counting detector with the lowest noise and highest dynamic range • Micro focus sealed tube generator and confocal double-bounce optic off ers great performance with minimal maintenance • The PILATUS 200K detector is air cooled to reduce maintenance • A system that fi ts your research needs and budget while providing unprecedented performance, especially for weakly diff racting samples Rigaku Corporation and its Global Subsidiaries website: www.Rigaku.com | email: [email protected] Crystallography News June 2013 Contents From the President. 2 BCA Council 2013. 3 From the Editor. 4 BCA Administrative Office, Helen Leese Puzzle Corner. 5 First Floor Hornbeam House 2012 Annual General Meeting of the BCA. 6 Hornbeam Business Park Harrogate HG2 8QT Tel: +44 (0)1423 855 990 Centenary Events. 9 Fax: +44 (0)1423 855 999 e-mail: [email protected] Announcing the 2013 Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship Recipients. 12 CRYSTALLOGRAPHY NEWS is published quarterly (March, June, September and PANalytical Award to Thomas Bennett. 13 December) by the British Crystallographic Association, and printed by Bowmans, Leeds. Text should preferably be sent electronically as MSword documents Bursary Recipients’ Reports. 14 (any version - .doc, .rtf or .txt files) or else on a PC disk. Diagrams and figures are most welcome, but please send them Worldwide Protein Data Bank. 16 separately from text as .jpg, .gif, .tif, or .bmp files. Items may include technical articles, news about people (eg awards, Argon: a Noble Gas and Two Noble honours, retirements etc), reports on past meetings of interest to crystallographers, Crystallographers. 18 notices of future meetings, historical reminiscences, letters to the editor, book, hardware or software reviews. News from the Groups. 20 Please ensure that items for inclusion in the September 2013 issue are sent to the Editor to arrive before 25 July 2013. Books. 21 Carl Schwalbe 15 St Augustine Drive Droitwich Obituaries. 23 Worcs WR9 8QR Tel: 01905 775257 e-mail: [email protected] Meetings of Interest. 26 The British Crystallographic Association is a Registered Charity (#284718) As required by the DATA PROTECTION ACT, the BCA is notifying members that we store your contact information on a computer database to simplify our administration. These details are not divulged to any others This month’s cover: without your permission. You may inspect your entry during the Annual Meeting, or otherwise by application to the BCA Exhibition at the Science Administrative Office. We will be happy to amend entries at any time. Museum, London (photos by Jennie Hills); scenes Printed by Bowmans from the Big Bang Fair Westland Square, Westland Road, Leeds, LS11 5SS Tel: 0113 272 0088 Web: www.bowmans77.co.uk Crystallography News June 2013 1 From the President IN my last column I used the shape every 30 seconds or so for wave upon wave of phrase ‘no relation’ when school pupils quickly took its toll on my stamina, so ‘hats writing about Melvyn Bragg off’ to those who were working on the stand for a whole day and his Radio 4 ‘In Our Time’ – let alone for four! Robin Clegg, the Head of Public programme on William and Engagement at STFC wrote after he visited on the Friday, Lawrence Bragg. I had had it on “The Crystallography stand was excellent and hugely good authority that although popular. I understand that the BB management thought it they came from the same part one of the best.” And Laura Holland from the Diamond of the country, Melvyn and the Public Engagement team e-mailed me afterwards, “The crystallographic Braggs were event was fantastic, and I can’t tell you how impressed I indeed unrelated. Inevitably no was by the enthusiasm and talent of the volunteers. You’ve sooner had Crystallography News been published than got a really good group of communicators, which the the same good authority (i.e. Mike Glazer) came back to association should be very proud of.” I would like to single me with a pair of family trees showing that William Henry out Ross for particular thanks for his excellent coordination Bragg’s great, great, grandparents Henry (1724-1795) and hard work in making the event happen, and to thank and Sarah (née Lightfoot, 1724-1779) were also Melvyn STFC (and, in the background, RCUK) for their substantial Bragg’s ancestors. In the spirit of Leveson I apologise funding, to Diamond for their many contributions and of for my inaccurate journalism! I understand that this real, course to all the BCA volunteers; keep – and wear – those albeit somewhat distant, link between these Braggs has yellow T-shirts with pride! prompted Melvyn to collaborate on at least one other Bragg-related programme to be broadcast in due course. Preparations for the 28th European Crystallographic Meeting in Warwick are gathering pace and the scientific The crystallography centenary story is indeed gathering programme is looking really good. By the time that you read momentum. As I got into my car to drive home this evening, this I hope that you will have already registered for the the PM programme on Radio 4 (to think that I never used to meeting and have submitted abstracts for consideration as listen to this station…) had a news article by BBC reporter talks and/or posters. The meeting organisers, led by Sandy Louise Jackson on the Bragg Centenary from Leeds Blake, are adding content to the ECM28 web site University, with interviews with Kersten Hall, Chris (ecm28.ecanews.org/) almost daily. Please do check it Hammond and Tom Edwards. Chris Hammond suggested regularly for up to date information about the meeting. I look that “modesty” probably prevented the Braggs from being forward to meeting a strong cohort of BCA members at this better known or being given their rightful place in history. It year’s European Crystallographic Meeting on our home soil. was excellent to hear that the message, “X-ray crystallography We will also be holding our Annual General Meeting at changed science” is reaching such a wide audience. If you ECM28 in Warwick. As part of this we will be electing are planning any Bragg Centenary related events this year or members to BCA Council. Further details are given in this events for the International Year of Crystallography in 2014 issue of Crystallography News and if you are interested in then please do let us know so that we can advertise them. standing for one of the available positions then please either We are collating information on all events on our web site contact me or one of the other BCA Officers. (crystallography.org.uk/bragg-centenary/). You can also use the Bragg Centenary Logo for your outreach events and I hope that you enjoy reading this issue of Crystallography can obtain free copies of the STFC-produced ‘broadsheet’ News. on crystallography from www.stfc.ac.uk/1889#PSG for giving out at your events. Four thousand of these were David Keen distributed at our stand at the Big Bang Fair so they are clearly popular. The highlight of the past few months was undoubtedly our contribution to the Big Bang Science and Technology Fair at the ExCeL Centre in London. Ross Harrington writes more on this later in this issue of Crystallography News, but last March around 40 BCA members were yellow T-shirted demonstrators to around 75,000 visitors at the BCA-STFC- DLS stand “The Structure of Stuff is Sweet”. It was a fantastic event and our stand attracted huge crowds of people of all ages. They were intrigued and enthralled by marshmallow unit cells, marble crystals, real time lysozyme crystal growth and even a lego diffractometer.
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