Crystallography

Crystallography is the branch of science devoted to the study of molecular and crystalline structure and properties. The word crystallography is derived from the <a href="/facts/Ancient_Greek/LIK7NlUh">Ancient Greek</a> word κρύσταλλος (krústallos; "clear ice, rock-crystal"), and γράφειν (gráphein; "to write"). In July 2012, the <a href="/facts/United_Nations/fgXLnmgT">United Nations</a> recognised the importance of the science of crystallography by proclaiming 2014 the International Year of Crystallography.
Crystallography is a broad topic, and many of its subareas, such as <a href="/facts/X-ray_crystallography/WtI0F5DN">X-ray crystallography</a>, are themselves important scientific topics. Crystallography ranges from the fundamentals of <a href="/facts/Crystal_structure/bJ4bCeHd">crystal structure</a> to the mathematics of <a href="/facts/Crystal_system/dMQLk1q4">crystal geometry</a>, including those that are <a href="/facts/Aperiodic_crystal/ITc7C1WV">not periodic</a> or <a href="/facts/Quasicrystal/evHcQeCp">quasicrystals</a>. At the atomic scale it can involve the use of <a href="/facts/X-ray_diffraction/V2kxuumq">X-ray diffraction</a> to produce experimental data that the tools of <a href="/facts/X-ray_crystallography/WtI0F5DN">X-ray crystallography</a> can convert into detailed positions of atoms, and sometimes electron density. At larger scales it includes experimental tools such as <a href="/facts/Orientation_imaging_microscopy/Cf2I1ukA">orientational imaging</a> to examine the relative orientations at the <a href="/facts/Grain_boundary/3r6klMTy">grain boundary</a> in materials. Crystallography plays a key role in many areas of biology, chemistry, and physics, as well new developments in these fields.

Crystallography open-in-new

Crystallography