Want to know why scientists think crystals are special? An enthusiastic audience of around 200 people flocked to the Synchrotron in December 2014 to learn for themselves what crystallography is and how it’s making a real difference to our lives.

The second of our new series of public presentations, ‘Crystallography: making matters crystal clear’ explained what crystallography is and why you need a synchrotron to do it well. David Cookson told his audience how crystals were composed of large numbers of molecules assembled in a regular structure. Crystallography reveals the structure of a single molecule by recording what happens when synchrotron x-rays interact with large numbers of molecules assembled together and all pointing the same way.

“It’s a bit like a Mexican wave,” David said. “You can’t see a single person waving their hands when you’re a long way away from them, but you can see when lots of people wave their hands in unison.”

Several presenters gave examples of how scientists are using crystallography to help them:

• develop more-effective new drugs for cancers such as leukaemia
• improve the efficiency of industrial operations such as mineral processing, potentially reducing costs and environmental impacts
• investigate the role of proteins in our bodies, and in animals, plants, bacteria and viruses. This yields valuable new knowledge about diseases, infectious organisms, and how the immune system works – and ultimately leads to to better diagnostic tests and treatments for many different health conditions.

Participants also toured the synchrotron facility, chatted with scientists, manipulated 3D digital images of complex protein structures and handled spectacular crystals of mica, gypsum, garnet, pyrite and bismuth.

Watch our website for details on the next event in the series, scheduled for March 2015, which will celebrate 2015 International Year of Light.