Crystallography matters ... more!

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

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.

“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)

The exhibition "Living with crystal" (original title in Slovenian: Živeti s kristali), organized on the occasion of the International Year of Crystallography, will be open from 13 February 2014 to 11 January 2015 at the Slovenian Museum of Natural History, Ljubljana. 

On display: Photographs of minerals, Crystal drawings, Mineral and crystal collections, Jewellery, Fluorescent minerals, Interactive presentation of minerals and rocks on Biedermeier tables, Interactive play "Umek the Mineralogist", Microscopic world of crystals.

Authors: Miha Jeršek, Mirjan Žorž, Breda Činč Juhant, Katarina Fuchs

SYMPOSIUM

Neutron and X-Ray Studies of Advanced Materials –VII- Challenges of the Future World Proposed and Approved by Mechanical Behavior Committee and
To be held at the 2014 TMS Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA USA

ABSTRACT DEADLINE: July 15, 2013
MANUSCRIPT DEADLINE: February 31, 2014

OBJECTIVE: Provide fundamental and advanced understanding of advanced materials using neutron and X-ray diffraction techniques

Sponsored by: TMS Mechanical Behavior Committee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Air Force Research Laboratory

In 2012/13 the diffraction community celebrated 100 years since the prediction of X-ray diffraction by M. Laue, and following his suggestion the first beautiful diffraction experiment by W. Friedrich and P. Knipping. To acknowledge the importance of the diffraction discovery, the United Nations (UN) declared 2014 the international year of crystallography. The significance of techniques based on the analysis of the diffraction of X-rays, neutrons, electrons and Mossbauer photons discovered later, has continued to increase in the past 100 years.
The aim of this symposium is to provide a forum for discussion of using state-of-the-art neutron and X-ray scattering techniques for probing advanced materials. These techniques have been widely used to characterize materials structures across all length scales, from atomic to nano, meso, and macroscopic scales. With the development of sample environments, in-situ experiments, e.g., at temperatures and applied mechanical load, are becoming routine.
The development of ultra-brilliant third-generation synchrotron X-ray sources, together with advances in X-ray optics, has created intense X-ray microbeams, which provide the best opportunities for in-depth understanding of mechanical behavior in a broad spectrum of materials. Important applications include ultra-sensitive elemental detection by X-ray fluorescence/absorption and microdiffraction to identify phase and strain with submicrometer spatial resolution. X-ray microdiffraction is a particularly exciting application compared with alternative probes of crystalline structure, orientation and strain. X-ray microdiffraction is non-destructive with good strain resolution, competitive or superior spatial resolution in thick samples, and with the ability to probe below the sample surface. Advances in neutron sources and instrumentation also bring new opportunities in neutron scattering research.    In addition to characterizing the structures, neutrons are also a great tool for elucidating the dynamics of materials. Because neutrons are highly penetrating, neutrons have been used to map stress in engineering systems. Neutrons have also played a vital role in our understanding of the magnetism and magnetic properties. Specialized instruments have been built to gain physical insights of the fundamental mechanisms governing phase transformation and mechanical behaviors of materials.
The application of those techniques, in combination with theoretical simulations and numerical modeling, will lead to major breakthroughs in materials science in the foreseeable future that will contribute to the development of materials technology and industrial innovation.

Some of the areas (but not limited to) to be explored:
1. Crystallography and Diffraction Centennial
2. Deformation and fracture
3. Texture and recrystallization
4. Analyses of complex, nano-crystalline and disordered materials
5. Spatially resolved measurements at different length scales and 3-dimensional methods
6. Time-resolved measurements of materials processing
7. Characterization of surfaces, interfaces and thin films
8. Theoretical modeling and simulations
9. Phase transition, evolution and critical scattering
10. Diffuse scattering studies of fundamental materials properties
11. Mechanical property characterization, with an emphasis on measurements at the nano- and micro-scale
12. Industrial applications
13. New experimental and analysis methods

Abstracts are due by July 1, 2013 to http://cmsplus.tms.org. The full length papers are planned to be published in Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A.
Organizers:
Dr. R.I. Barabash, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Materials Science & Technology Div., Bldg. 4500S MS-6118 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6118, USA Tel: (865) 241-7230 Fax: (865) 5747659 E-mail: barabashr@ornl.gov
Prof. G. Kostorz Professor Emeritus of Physics ETH Zurich CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland kostorz@emeritus.ethz.ch
Prof. Brent Fultz Materials Science and Applied Physics California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California 91125
Tel: (626) 395 2170 Fax: (626) 795 6132 e-mail: btf@caltech.edu
Prof. P. K. Liaw The University of Tennessee Materials Science & Engineering Knoxville, TN 37996-2200 Tel: (865) 974-4858 Fax: (865) 974-4115 E-mail: pliaw@utk.edu

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.