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> growing crystals was of paramount importance for certain structure determinations using X-ray crystallography (to answer "did I really prepare what I think I
by gwerbret 5y ago
> growing crystals was of paramount importance for certain structure determinations using X-ray crystallography (to answer "did I really prepare what I think I prepared?")
Ahh, X-ray crystallography, a.k.a. the field of modern (bio)chemistry that most closely resembles medieval alchemy.
The excellent 2009 documentary "Naturally Obsessed" [0] is about how difficult, time-consuming, and frankly irrational it can be to successfully crystallize certain proteins and protein complexes. The film is about how some PhD students spend the entire five-ish years of their degree programs trying (and mostly failing) to find the secret recipes (protein purity/additive ingredients/temperature/humidity/phase of the moon) that will allow their proteins to crystallize, and thus granting them data with which to populate their dissertations.
Why irrational? In one case, the secret ingredient is pickle juice.
[0]: https://www.thirteen.org/naturally-obsessed/ https://www.thirteen.org/naturally-obsessed/
- divbzero 5y ago> Ahh, X-ray crystallography, a.k.a. the field of modern (bio)chemistry that most closely resembles medieval alchemy. This is amusingly accurate and makes me wonder if our understanding and techniques will ever advance to the point where crystallography no longer feels like medieval alchemy. Surely the process is largely deterministic and we simply can’t control the relevant initial conditions with our current methods.
- mahkeiro 5y agoFortunately cryo-EM is helping to overcome the cristallography bottleneck. B progress regarding cryo-EM resolution have been made in the last years.
- hoseja 5y agoHas it's own share of alchemy. Remember, the water has to remain vitreous. This is sometimes quite incompatible with the environment proteins want to exist in in their natural state.