Crystals - known to everybody as gems, snow crystals, or salt grains - are widespread in the nature around us. The investigation of their structure and properties means looking inside the intimate of atom geometries - a look contributing to the scientific development of chemistry, solid state physics, Earth sciences, and even, surprisingly, biology and medicine.

A century has passed since the crystals first revealed their secrets. In the meantime crystallography has become the pillar of the atomic and molecular sciences, showing us the structure of DNA, allowing the comprehension and the development of computer memories, visualizing the formation of proteins within cells, and yielding ever new materials and drugs.

This is why on July 2012, resolution 66/284 of the General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2014 - after 100 years from the awarding of the first Nobel Prize for the discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals - the International Year of Crystallography.

The exhibition organized at the University of Padova wishes to celebrate the theoretical and applied aspects of crystallography on the occasion of the International Year.

See the photos of the exhibition taken during the Opening Ceremony on 5 October 2013

The First Latin American Crystallography Meeting is being organized as a joint event with the IXth Annual Meeting of the Argentinean Crystallographic Association in Córdoba, Argentina. It will be hosted by the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba - www.unc.edu.ar , coinciding with the celebration of the 400^th anniversary of its foundation in 1613. UNC is the oldest university in Argentina and number 4 among the oldest in Latin America. Its original pavilions and buildings have been declared by UNESCO as World Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The scientific program will include plenary lectures, oral presentations and poster sessions. Full details and information can be found at the homepage of the event: www.cristalografia2013.com.ar. Satellite meetings include a "Workshop on neutron techniques for the characterization of materials" and a "School on crystal structure analysis and microcrystalline characterization using powder diffraction data".

“L’ENIGMA ESCHER- PARADOSSI GRAFICI TRA ARTE E GEOMETRIA” is the title of a major retrospective exhibition of the work of Maurits Cornelis Escher, on display in Reggio Emilia until 23 March 2014.

The exhibition presents the work of the Dutch graphic artist from his debut on the scene to his latest years, bringing together 130 works, including lithographs, etchings and drawings, on loan from museums, libraries and national institutes – among which the Galleria d’Arte Moderna of Rome and the Fondazione Wolfsoniana of Genoa – as well as from some important, private collections.

A special section is dedicated to tilings, with a panel illustrating the 17 crystallographic planar groups and some original examples of Escher's plane-filling drawings.

The exhibition will then move to Caraglio (Cuneo, Italy), where it will be on display from 29 March to 29 June.

The exhibition is included in the events for IYCr2014 celebrations in Italy. 

Read the press release mentioning the connection of the exhibition with IYCr2014 (in Italian)

This year's exhibition at Carolina Rediviva, Platonic Solids and Quasicrystals, is all about crystallography and shows how this science has been perceived over time. By collaborating with the Museum of Evolution at Uppsala University, we can exhibit books side by side with real crystals, models of crystals and instruments that have been used to measure the angles of these strange formations that seem to have been cut and polished by human hand whereas in fact they have been shaped by uniform atomic structures.

Welcome on a beautiful journey through this collection of historical scientific books and artifacts.

Cristalli da mangiare... chi l'avrebbe mai detto?
Edible crystals... can you believe it?

What links crystallography to a chocolate bar that melts pleasantly in the mouth and has the surface sheen and crisp hardness that make it so tasty? And how is crystallography involved in the preparation of a soft and smooth ice-cream?

A public lecture by Prof Dario Braga from University of Bologna at the "Festival delle Science" in Genoa.

Cristalli da indossare - Crystals to wear

Not only jewels. We wear natural and artificial crystals directly on our skin or nails as cosmetics. And liquid crystals reveal our mood! 

A public lecture by Fabrizia Grepioni from University of Bologna at the "Festival della Scienza" in Genoa.

From gigantic and exotic cave formations to everyday ingredients such as salt and sugar, crystals are all around us. In our latest special exhibition – Crystals: Beauty, Science, Structure – we look at the history of the study of crystals, an endeavour which has prized their mysterious and natural beauty, as well as probed their fundamental atomic structures.

In the middle ages, natural minerals were thought to carry occult properties, perhaps suggested by their startling array of colours and geometric forms. These regular forms promised a special insight into nature and from the 17th century onwards they were exactly measured and their symmetries exhaustively classified.

At the turn of the 20th century even deeper secrets were illuminated by the ground-breaking technique of x-ray crystallography. Today, crystallography is the hidden science behind many aspects of our lives.

This year, 2013, celebrates the centenary of the pioneering work of father and son William and Lawrence Bragg, which laid the foundations for the science of x-ray crystallography. The International Year of Crystallography takes place during 2014.

11 a 14 de Novembro de 2013
Fortaleza – CE

Instrutor: Prof. José Marcos Sasaki (UFC)
Monitores: Tereza Raquel Souza e Yuri Magalhães do Carmo

Informações Gerais:
O método de refinamento Rietveld vem se destacando como um método indispensável na caracterização de materiais policristalinos. Suas potencialidades serão discutidas em profundidade durante os 4 dias de curso. Além de aulas teóricas, será enfatizado o uso do difratômetro pelos participantes (preparação de amostras), acesso a bases de dados de estruturas cristalinas (CAPES) e a utilização da interface gráfica para o programa de refinamento DBWS. O curso será destinado a profissionais que atuam nas indústrias, alunos de pós-graduação e pesquisadores residentes fora de Fortaleza que necessitam, nas suas respectivas áreas, de análises de estruturas e/ou quantitativas de fases.

Instrutor:
J.M. Sasaki (Doutor) É professor associado do Departamento de Física da Universidade Federal do Ceará (Fortaleza/CE) desde 1995. Doutorado pelo Instituto de Física “Gleb Wataghin” no ano de 1993 e desde 1996 vem utilizando o Método Rietveld na caracterização de materiais policristalinos. Atualmente trabalha na caracterização de cristais por difração de raios-X usando radiação síncrotron e na síntese de nanopartículas. Coordenador do Laboratório Multi-Usuários em Nanotecnologia/CNPq.

Local:
As aulas teóricas serão ministradas na sala do prof. Sasaki e as aulas práticas no Laboratório de Raios-X (X-Pert MPD – Panalytical).
Universidade Federal do Ceará
Laboratório de Raios-X – LRX
Departamento de Física
Campus do Pici
CEP 60455-970, Fortaleza – CE
Fone: (85)3366-9917/3366-9013

Público Alvo:
Estudantes de Mestrado, Doutorado, Iniciação Científica e profissionais que atuam nas indústrias com interesses em análises estruturais e quantitativas de fases.

Carga horária:
3 horas de aula teórica e 9 hora de aula prática
Total: 12 horas

Inscrição:
● Preencher o formulário de inscrição que se encontra na homepage http://www.astef.ufc.br

● Serão oferecidas somente 20 vagas. A lista de pré-inscritos será usada para fazer a seleção.
● Somente os participantes que tiver frequência acima de 75% receberão certificados.
● Importante: Serão aceitas somente inscrições de participantes que residem e estudem fora da cidade de Fortaleza. O participante deverá enviar (cursos@astef.ufc.br) o comprovante de matrícula (para alunos de iniciação científica e pós-graduação), comprovante de pagamento e o comprovante de residência.
● Na sexta-feira dia 8/11/2013 (às 19:00 horas) da semana anterior ao início do curso será feito um teste de conexão entre os participantes.

Maiores Informações:

http://www.raiosx.ufc.br/site/

http://www.astef.ufc.br

Tel: (85) 3458-7068/9622-0303 (Dalva ou Alessandra)

Nota: O curso será cancelado e devolvida a taxa de inscrição caso o número mínimo de participantes não atingir a 10 (dez).

Programação do Curso:
● 11/11/2013 – Segunda-Feira
19:00 – Abertura
19:30 – 22:00
Aula Teórica: Histórico, produção de radiação, as três equações de Laue, equação de Bragg da difração, rede recíproca, esfera de reflexão, espalhamento por um elétron, fator de espalhamento atômico, Dispersão anômala, difração de raios-x por cristais ideais (teoria cinemática), fator de estrutura, largura dos picos de difração, efeito da temperatura, potência refletida integrada, difração por um agregado policristalino.

● 12/10/2013 – Terça-Feira
19:00 – 22:00
Apresentação do difratômetro de raios-X instalado no Laboratório de Raios-X/Panalytical. Identificação de fases cristalinas, apresentação da interface gráfica para o programa DBWS e utilização das Bases de Dados de Estruturas Cristalinas/CAPES.
Aula experimental: preparação das amostras, medidas dos padrões de difração, envio das medidas, identificação de fases, consulta base de dados e aplicação do método Rietveld de refinamento de estrutura (DBWS).

● 13/11/2013 – Quarta-Feira
19:00 – 22:00
Aula experimental: preparação das amostras, medidas dos padrões de difração, envio das medidas, identificação de fases, consulta base de dados e aplicação do método Rietveld de refinamento de estrutura (DBWS).

● 14/11/2013 – Quinta-Feira
19:00 – 22:00
Aula experimental: preparação das amostras, medidas dos padrões de difração, envio das medidas, identificação de fases, consulta base de dados e aplicação do método Rietveld de refinamento de estrutura (DBWS).

● Sexta-feira e final de semana
Exercícios: Refinamentos pelos participantes

● 18/11/2013 – Segunda-Feira
19:00 – 22:00
Aula tira-dúvidas: Dúvidas teóricas e práticas.
22:00 – Encerramento e considerações finais

Material Didático:
● Os participantes receberão todas instruções na semana anterior e os programas que serão utilizados durante o curso.
● Material: slides sobre teoria da difração e Método Rietveld, apostila e notas de aula.
● O curso será gravado e disponibilizado na página do Laboratório de Raios-X da UFC.

The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB), an International Supporter of IYCr2014, announces the 14th IUBMB Conference Host-microbe interactions, to be held in Marrakech (Morocco) from 16 to 20 November 2013.

The Opening Ceremony will include an invited lecture, sponsored by IYCr2014, on the topic "Structural studies of protein-protein complexes" by Professor Samar Hasnain (U. Liverpool).

The IUBMB, an International Scientific Union affiliated to ICSU, seeks to advance the international molecular life sciences community by:

• Promoting interactions across the diversity of endeavours in the molecular life sciences..
• Creating networks that transcend barriers of ethnicity, culture, gender and economic status.
• Creating pathways for young scientists to fulfil their potential.
• Providing evidence-based advice on public policy.
• Promoting the values, standards and ethics of science and the free and unhampered movement of scientists of all nations.

The exhibition

Beauty and symmetry in the world of crystals

is organized through the collaboration of the Hungarian National Committee of IUCr and the artist Attila Kovács, painter, focusing on translational symmetry.

It is taking place between 20-27 November 2013 in the Vasarely room of the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Conjunction of art and science via symmetry.

IYCr2014 – one hundred years of exploring the world of atoms, a lecture presented by Stanko Popovic at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, November 20, 2013

From the crystallography and modeling of stereoregular polymers to the challenges of complex systems

Crystallography and molecular modeling of stereoregular polymers played a key role in the work that brought to Natta the Nobel prize shared with Ziegler in 1963. The conference highlights exciting developments of these methodologies from the Natta school to current research on increasingly complex materials and biological systems. The aim remains correlating properties to structure and defining interactions and self-organization processes at the molecular level and beyond.

Crystallography - a different point of view

A series of lectures provided by Urszula Rychlewska to the students of the University of the Third Age at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and Poznań University of Technology.

You are cordially invited to a one-day symposium to celebrate the 100th anniversary of X-ray diffraction: “Crystallography for Life" – Thursday 28 November 2013, from 9 am to 6 pm. The list of speakers includes eminent scientists from Grenoble and from abroad: S. Cusack, J. Jenkin, A. Podjarny, I. Schlichting and D. Stuart. The detailed programme is available here. The symposium will start with a video-link from the ILL to Australian ANSTO. The buffet lunch, along with poster presentations by young scientists, will take place at the new IBS building, and the afternoon session will be held at the ESRF. The event is hosted by J. Zaccai. The language is English.

The deadline for registration (max 150 participants) is 20 November 2013.

Please note also that on 28 November, Anne Imberty (CNRS silver medal 2013) will present her work in a public lecture (in French) at the Minatec Auditorium.