• Question: What do you like about Crystallation?

    Asked by anon-185153 to William, Rebecca, Martyna, Callum, Alice, Adam on 8 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Adam Berlie

      Adam Berlie answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      I think it’s worth clarifying that crystalisation is the process by which crystals form. Saying, that if you get things right you should see what you can produce. There are many different ways you can get things to crystalise and this in itself is quite facinating. I’ve even seen people take powders, mix them together, expose them to extreme heat (1000 degrees C) and allow things to cool creating some very interesting crystals. I’ve seen solids being made by squeezing things like nitrogen under very high pressures. Growing crystals out of solution is an extremely rewarding process, it can be hard to get things just right but watching things grow over time is very interesting. You find different types of materials grow crystals in very different ways and this can begin to show you information on how the atoms fit together.

      However, it is what you can go on to do with the crystals that is really amazing. From growing these crystals you can begin to answer some fundmental questions about how the material behaves, what it does and how all the atoms arrange themselves.

    • Photo: Rebecca Roddan

      Rebecca Roddan answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      I like that it feels almost like magic. It’s impossible to predict what conditions will get something to crystallise. People get very superstitious about their crystals and it often feels more like an art than a science.

    • Photo: Martyna Pastok

      Martyna Pastok answered on 9 Nov 2018: last edited 9 Nov 2018 7:33 am

      I agree with Rebecca. Additionally they are often very beautiful 🙂

    • Photo: Alice Loasby

      Alice Loasby answered on 9 Nov 2018:

      Protein crystals really do look beautiful when they form, but my favourite part about crystallisation (other than the fun process of freezing in liquid nitrogen) is taking the crystals to a synchrotron, exposing them to x-rays, and seeing how they diffract for the first time (this looks like a symmetric pattern of black dots). It’s always exciting.

    • Photo: Callum McHugh

      Callum McHugh answered on 9 Nov 2018:

      The formation of crystals is a beautiful process and one that we dont understand properly. I love the way that crystals look and the way that they interact with light. We can gain so much information about a material’s properties from its crystal structure which can help us to make better materials. This is relevant in so many areas of science from pharmaceuticals to pigments.

    • Photo: William Glass

      William Glass answered on 12 Nov 2018:

      As the others have said I think crystals are fascinating, there are SO many was that they can form and under in all sorts of different environments. They’re also interesting from a mathematical point of view and the field of topology (i.e. the shapes of things), the fact they span from physics to biology (with protein crystals) is also really interesting!

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