Basic Crystallography @ Jewel Info 4 U
By:Ritika
Summary: Basic crystallography is about the fundamental principles of geometrical crystallography which are brought in through the medium of symmetry operations, lattices, and the creation of point and space groups.
The study of mineralogy has a
fascinating division -
Crystallography. One can't help
admiring crystals like pyrite,
quartz, or tourmaline which are
esthetically pleasing.
Crystallography basically means the
study of crystals. Crystals refer to
all minerals with well-expressed
crystal shapes. Crystallographers
have been able to get important
information about the type and the
various stages of formation of
crystals through analysis and thus
crystallography has become an
important branch of science.
 Crystallography is divided into 3
sections - geometrical, physical and
chemical. Crystal is a standard
polyhedral form bound by smooth
faces made of chemical compound
which forms into a crystal due to
the action of inter-atomic forces
under specific conditions. Nicholas
Steno, a Danish scientist found that
irrespective of the conditions in
which the crystal grew, the angle of
the crystal remains the same. It has
been recently proved that this is
because of the geometric
relationships which retain the
structure.
We also find crystals which are not
symmetrical in their angles which
are quite common and this condition
is because of the breakage of
minerals. Crystallography proves how
during the formation of crystals
they get different geometric shapes
due to the atomic structure and the
conditions under which they form.
All crystal forms fit into six
crystal systems - Cubic, Tetragonal,
Orthorhombic, Hexagonal, Monoclinic,
and Triclinic. Most crystals have a
center of symmetry even if they
don't have planes of symmetry or
axes of symmetry.
Basic crystallography is all about
the fundamental principles of
geometrical crystallography which
are brought in through the medium of
symmetry operations, lattices, and
the creation of point and space
groups. X-ray crystallography shows
how spot intensities are bound by
the unit cell and various
diffraction directions rely on the
lattice.
Basic crystallography studies the
distribution of atoms in all forms
of matter like liquid, gas and any
other form.
The different shapes of crystals
are:
1. Acicular crystals which are thin
needle-like.
2. Botryoidal which look like a
bunch of grapes
3. Crystal Face is one of the flat
surfaces of the crystal
4. Form which is the group of
crystal faces which are alike
5. Lamellar which looks like the
thin leaves of the book
6. Pinacoid which are the crystal
faces which are parallel to crystal
axes and cut across by the third
axis
7. First order where the prism is
cut by two lateral axes
8. Striations where the crystal face
has lines.
and so on.
Talking about the Basic
Crystallography Kit used by
students, the kit is an efficient
screening method for finding out the
solubility and starting conditions
for the crystallization. The
crystallographers investigate a
variety of other materials like
glasses, fibers, etc. The different
methods used by them are: high and
low temperature studies, neutron
diffraction, high pressure
diffraction, electron
crystallography, micro gravity
experiments, molecular modeling and
atomic force microscopy.
Crystallographers have recently
discovered how proteins recognize
the shape of DNA to turn genes on
and off.
To have a career as a
crystallographer, biology,
chemistry, physics, and mathematics
are important and any advanced
sciences courses will be useful.
English and writing skills are also
important. At the graduate level, a
crystallographer develops and
refines a specialty and gains
experience on this.
The
IUCr is the union adhering to
International Council for Science
with objectives to promote
international cooperation in
crystallography, to promote
publication of crystallographic
research, standardization of
methods, units and symbols and
relations of crystallography to
other sciences.
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