The 2025 conference season is in full swing, with highlights from the German and British crystallographic meetings. This month’s issue also features a product spotlight on the XtaLAB Synergy-S, a data quality tip, a notable structure report, and book reviews worth exploring.
The 2025 conference season has started in earnest. Felix Hennersdorf provides a short writeup on the German Crystallographic Society’s Annual Meeting. As I write this the British Crystallographic Association’s Spring Meeting has just started.
Fraser details the usefulness of this month’s product in the spotlight, an XtaLAB Synergy-S outfitted with the silver PhotonJet-S and a DECTRIS EIGER2 1M with a CdTe sensor.
Jessica provides a useful tip of the month to guide you in the assessment of the signal-to-noise ratio in your data. A very interesting structure, at least to me, was reported in Acta C, capsaicin. I hope you find my choice of the video of the month useful, the 20th Anniversary of This Week in Tech.
Finally, Jeanette reviews Humans: A Monstrous History. I just finished Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism. I suggest that you read the book, especially if you use any Meta products.
In this session, we will walk through the complete electron diffraction process, including sample preparation, data collection, and structural analysis. We will explore how integrated hardware and software in a dedicated diffractometer streamline workflows, enhancing the efficiency of single-crystal structural solutions and making bulk powder analysis by ED a practical approach. Join us to see how ED is transforming research—register now!
The RSfPC is a course aimed at newcomers to crystallography and focuses on the practical aspects of crystallography with 10 lectures covering approx 10 hours and a course exam at the end.
The Rigaku School for Practical Crystallography was created during the pandemic to help fill the gap left by the cancellation of many regional crystallographic teaching schools. Thanks to the positive response over the past four years, it has continued to grow. Now offered on-demand, the course aims to make learning more accessible by overcoming time-zone challenges and reaching a wider audience.
We’re excited to welcome new students to the Rigaku School for Practical Crystallography.
Our LinkedIn groupshares information and fosters discussion about X-ray crystallography and SAXS topics. Connect with other research groups and receive updates on how they use these techniques in their own laboratories. You can also catch up on the latest newsletter or Rigaku Journal issue. We also hope that you will share information about your own research and laboratory groups.
Atrigakuxrayforum.comyou can find discussions about software, general crystallography issues and more. It’s also the place to download the latest version of Rigaku Oxford Diffraction’sCrysAlisProsoftware for single crystal data processing.
The PhotonJet-S is available as an Ag Kα source, making it particularly well-suited for advanced crystallographic techniques such as high-pressure crystallography, charge density studies, and the analysis of strongly absorbing samples where the highest data quality is essential.
The shorter wavelength of Ag Kα radiation produces more compact diffraction patterns, allowing more data to be captured per detector image compared to longer wavelengths. This is especially advantageous for high-resolution applications like charge density investigations where high resolution and redundancy are important and for challenging high-pressure experiments, where achieving data completeness can be more difficult due to the body of a diamond anvil cell. Additionally, the weaker interaction of Ag Kα with matter when compared to Mo Kα or Cu Kα minimizes absorption effects, resulting in improved structural models and data quality for highly absorbing samples.
The PhotonJet-S Ag source is engineered to deliver an intense, spectrally pure Ag Kα beam, optimized for these demanding applications.
An unfortunate consequence of the shorter wavelength is that photons are harder to absorb in the sensor substrate of a detector. Thankfully, one of the key advantages of hybrid photon counting (HPC) detector technology is the absence of dark current and readout noise. This enables longer exposure times to enhance signal without an increase in the noise floor—crucial when using Ag Kα radiation. With HPC detectors, the only limit to data quality is acquisition time.
Experiment durations can be reduced by employing curved detectors, such as the HyPix-Arc 100° or HyPix-Arc 150°, or by adopting high atomic number (high-Z) sensor materials like CdTe. XtaLAB Synergy diffractometers support advanced HPC detectors including the DECTRIS PILATUS4 260K CdTe and EIGER2 1M CdTe, offering superior measurement speed and efficiency with Ag Kα radiation.
Rigaku Shines at the German Crystallographic Society Meeting in Hanover
From March 10-13, Rigaku proudly participated in the German Crystallographic Society Meeting held in Hanover, Germany. Our dedicated team, consisting of Christian Schürmann (RESE, Application Scientist), Jürgen Grässlin and Felix Hennersdorf (RESE, Sales), and Mathias Meyer (ROP, Software R&D) represented Rigaku with enthusiasm and expertise.
Christian Schürmann delivered an engaging presentation on our latest hardware innovations, including the PhotonJetMAX-Sand the Universal Goniometer 3. His insights captivated the audience, showcasing the cutting-edge technology Rigaku continues to develop.
Throughout the conference, our team engaged with numerous existing customers, discussing advancements in single crystal X-ray and electron diffraction. The interest in electron diffraction was notably high, reflecting its emergence as a transformative technology in the field. We were thrilled to see interest not only from German crystallographers but also from neighboring countries.
A highlight of the conference was a live Aikidō demonstration by one of the local organizers, Prof. Franz Renz. This unique and engaging presentation added a memorable Japanese touch to the event.
Data Collection Service For Nano Crystals
Rigaku offers a crystal structure determination service with scientific support, with data collection on a XtaLAB Synergy-ED diffractometer in Rigaku's own laboratories.
Access our electron diffraction service delivering all structural information, datasets, raw data files and software to re-process at your own leisure. Electron diffraction can be carried out on samples with crystallites under 1 micron in size, meaning that crystallization trials for traditional X-ray analysis no longer have to become a bottle neck to structural analysis.
When does data become noise? Deciding how to define the resolution limits of your data is something that any two crystallographers will likely have differing opinions on. For electron diffraction data, mean I/σ(I) values are frequently low, and dynamical scattering complicates the use of R-values such as Rint for thresholding. The Pearson correlation coefficient CC1/2, often used in macromolecular X-ray crystallography to identify weak signals in high-resolution shells, is a useful reference when evaluating the limits of weak electron diffraction datasets. [Karplus & Diederichs, Science 336, 1030–1033 (2012)]
Figure 1. Global update to statistics table printouts
By default, CrysAlisPro does not output CC1/2 to the final statistics vs. resolution tables. To add it to all future datasets collected on your system, follow the procedure outlined in Figure 1 using the online version of CrysAlisPro on the data collection computer. Open the program options by clicking on program name (1.1), edit options (1.2), and select the check box (1.3) to globally update the printout options (1.4) to include statistics outside the default settings. The statistics placed in the output order box (1.5) will be printed in their respective order after data reduction.
Figure 2. Update statistics table printouts for individual datasets
To update statistics tables for older datasets, open the data reduction viewer (2.1) and select refinalize (2.2). Under the filters and limits section, check apply (2.3) and click on the printout options (2.4). Add, remove, and re-arrange the statistics factors you would like to display (2.5). Then, refinalize the dataset to update the statistics tables.
Figure 3. Changing resolution limits during data reduction
After evaluating the outcome of automated processing from CrysAlisPro, you may find that the default high-resolution limit of 0.8 Å is not ideal for your sample. If you need to include higher resolution data, then you need to re-integrate the data. This can be done by selecting the “start/stop” button and initiating data reduction with options (3.1). Click next twice to find the “edit special pars” option (3.2) and ensure that resolution limits are checked (3.3). Select edit limits (3.4) and adjust the high limit (3.5) to your desired value (3.6). Select “OK” on all windows and perform your integration and scaling.
Figure 4. Changing resolution limits during refinalization
Follow the steps outlined in Figure 4 to trim high-resolution limits. Open the data reduction viewer (4.1) and select “manual” under the filters and limits (4.2). Check resolution limits (4.3) and set your desired value (4.4). This is particularly useful when working with merged datasets, where individual datasets may diffract to differing resolutions and the best value for the merged file is initially unclear. For electron diffraction datasets that are weak and prove tricky to solve, testing multiple resolution cutoffs can be helpful for obtaining an initial solution.
Crystals in the News
April 2025
A lone researcher at Josef Stefan Institute with a passion for spice has solved the single crystal structure of capsaicin, the molecule that makes chili peppers pop.
Video of the Month
This Week in Tech 1027: 20 Years in the Can
One of the podcasts I have listened to every week since my first iPhone, This Week in Tech, celebrated its20th anniversary on April 13th. On a lazy Sunday afternoon my wife and I will watch the videocast live. TWiT is always interesting and thought-provoking.
The opening line of Surekha Davies’ Humans:A Monstrous History informs the entire work. In the Introduction, Davies states “I spent my childhood watching too much Star Trek and have been searching for monsters and aliens ever since.” But if you haven’t seen every single Star Trek series, never fear. Anytime Davies uses an episode of Star Trek to illustrate a greater historical theme of ostracization or the like, Davies provides the reader with enough context to understand her point—and there are a lot of Star Trek anecdotes to help the reader conceptualize Davies’ thesis.
Davies explores the concept of monstrosity throughout human history. It becomes clear that the “real” monsters aren’t werewolves or vampires or aliens or abominable snowmen, and they also aren’t the people ostracized for being different. The monsters tend to be the people with power who use that power to dehumanize others perceived as different—often behind a veil of deeply rooted hypocrisy. Davies explores how everything from gender identity to sexual orientation to race to religion has been used throughout history by the systems of power to dehumanize and ostracize those who do not conform to some arbitrary societal norm. If the more traditional monsters make an appearance in the book, it’s only to illustrate that these fictional monsters are allegories for the greater societal fear of anything and anyone who might be considered different.
The book’s cover has a large, shiny silver oval, surrounded by black outlined drawings of traditional pop culture “monsters,” from E.T. to the xenomorph of Alien to X-Men’s Wolverine. The oval evokes a mirror—reinforcing Davies’ thesis that the real monsters are us—even today, even now with everything we’ve learned or not learned from history. The message is clear: for any human to find a monster, just look in the mirror.
Humans: A Monstrous History reads a bit like a doctoral dissertation, albeit a very well-written and compelling one. The tone is academic and the prose well-researched—yet the frequent interspersion of Star Trek anecdotes lends it a bit of whimsy—even though the television episodes in question tend to cover more serious subject matter. If anything, the frequency of Star Trek references serves to illustrate that, even though elements of the franchise’s many broadcast series have not aged well, they also serve as time capsules through which we can revisit social discussions from our more recent past.
