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

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.

In occasione delle celebrazioni mondiali per l’Anno Internazionale della Cristallografia, il Dipartimento di Chimica, il Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra "Macedonio Melloni", il Laboratorio di Strutturistica “Mario Nardelli” dell’Università di Parma e l’Istituto IMEM del CNR, i cui laboratori sono all’avanguardia nel campo della ricerca internazionale in ambito cristallografico, intendono organizzare una giornata dedicata alla Scuole Superiori per presentare le applicazioni più moderne e di frontiera della diffrattometria dei raggi X. La manifestazione si terrà il 3 marzo 2014 al Campus e farà parte di un insieme di celebrazioni che si terranno nello stesso periodo a livello nazionale.

Programma:

9.30 – 10.00 Inaugurazione, Saluto del Rettore
Presentazione ai Docenti delle attività per l’Anno della Cristallografia a Parma

10.00 - 10.30 I cristalli, la chimica e le scienze della vita
Prof. Alessia Bacchi (Dipartimento di Chimica)

10.30 - 11.00 Un secolo di onde e cristalli e le applicazioni nel mondo dei minerali
Prof. Mario Tribaudino  (Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra)

11.00 - 11.30 Intervallo

11.30 – 12.00 I cristalli e la scienza dei materiali
Prof. Gianluca Calestani (Dipartimento di Chimica)

12.00 - 12.30 Come si fanno i cristalli
Prof. Roberto Fornari (Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra)

Download the poster | See the photo gallery on "La Gazzetta di Parma" | Read a report  

Prof. Robert Huber, Nobel Laureate, Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry will be kickstarting the IYCR celebrations in CDRI through a lecture in this one day symposium to be held on 3rd March. Lectures by Dr A.K. Shaw, Dr R. Ravishankar and Dr T. Thakur are also on the agenda. A student interaction session to ignite interest in the area is a part of the symposium.

Download poster (PDF format)

Many initiatives have been and are being organized to involve schoolchildren at Mudaliarpet, Pondicherry (India) into crystallography on the occasion of IYCr2014.

1. At first, the students were given a brief introduction on various crystals, which made them think about how crystals are formed.

2. Following this, a team of students were selected for a project on Crystal Growth - investigating the size, shape and number of crystals formed, taking various substances such as table salt, sugar, epsom salt, borax, potassium nitrate and alum. 

3. A Radio Talk was given by the teacher and the students on the "International Year of Crystallography".

4. A lecture was given on the topic to the school students, following which a demonstration -cum- exhibition, along with a poster presentation by the teacher is to be arranged for view for the public around the school locale. 

5. A next attempt to telecast the above in the television is made.

6. Students of our school are participating in the IYCr2014 Crystal Growing Competition. 

The SPring-8 Conference 2014 will be held at Grand Front Osaka North Building 4F on 7 March 2014.