Seeing Things in a Different Light - How X-ray Crystallography Revealed the Structure of Everything

This discourse traces the development of X-ray crystallography from the Braggs’ early work to modern applications. It explains diffraction and illustrates the method through crystal and protein structures, including myoglobin and haemoglobin.

Syllabus

Intro
Thomas Henry Huxley
X-ray scattering
Crystallisation of Lysozyme
Zinc Blende (Zn) crystals
Reflection from several semi-transparent layers of atoms
Layers in crystals
The reaction of chemists
Diffraction from crystals of big molecules (1929)
Biological crystallography
Myoglobin structure (1959)
Haemoglobin structure (1962)
The Diamond Light Source