A technique that creates crystals on demand using laser pulses could make it easier to prepare the high-quality crystals needed to study protein structure. Chemists and biologists need crystals of proteins and other chemicals to analyse their atomic structure using X-rays, while many industrial processes rely on triggering crystal formation at precisely the right time and place during the production of drugs and other useful compounds. Yet crystallization still remains largely a black art. (source: nature.com)
|
