Catch up on our latest updates: MicroED webinar recap, ECM 2025 plans in Poznań, the new PhotonJetMAX-S spotlight, a crystallography tip from Pierre, and Jeanette’s book review.
Another busy month is upon us. We just finished our webinar series on MicroED on August 6 and will restart again in October, so keep an eye on the website or look for the announcement in the September newsletter.
Fraser explains all the activities we have planned for ECM in Poznań at the end of the month. I won’t be there, but you will see a number of my colleagues from Wrocław there.
The month we highlight the PhotonJetMAX-S, a new source for the Synergy systems available in both new systems and as an upgrade. Pierre provides the tip of the month on calculating the strategy to collect an IUCr-standard dataset from a “What Is This?” preliminary crystal structure. Jeanette reviews Politicians Manipulating Statistics: How They Do It and How to Oppose Them.
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.
We are looking forward to the 35th European Crystallography Meeting in Poznań. This year, the ECM was supposed to be in Lviv as decided at the 25th IUCr Congress in Prague in 2021. Due to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, the event was relocated to Poznań through a collaboration between the Ukrainian Crystallographic Committee and the Polish Crystallographic Association.
Rigaku is proud to support this event, and we will be pleased to see you there. We will be celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the formation of Rigaku Oxford Diffraction, the result of Rigaku’s acquisition of the Oxford Diffraction business unit from Agilent Technologies. We invite you all to participate in our competition to win a prize. All you need to do is collect your anniversary T-shirt from our booth, then turn up to the prize draw on Thursday at lunchtime wearing the shirt. The top prize is an iPad, so be sure to enter. We will also be holding a secondary prize event online. Post funny pictures on social media of your gnome (see below) or yourself wearing your shirt either during ECM or the following week. The best picture wins a prize.
We’ll also be giving away commemorative Wrocław Gnomes from our booth. For those who don’t know, our factory in nearby Wrocław has just installed our own gnome to commemorate the 10th anniversary and to join in the local tradition, which you can read about here. We decided to offer ECM attendees the opportunity to own a miniature replica of one, but we only prepared a limited number, so if you want one, make sure you stop by our booth as early as possible.
Finally, if you haven’t seen the XtaLAB Synergy-ED in action yet, we will be offering live demos at our booth, so if you are interested, stop by and ask us for a demo.
Double the diffracted intensity, same operating costs
Now available in copper and molybdenum!
Maximizing the number of photons hitting your detector can make all the difference, whether you're clearing a backlog of samples or extracting data from a challenging one. The PhotonJetMAX-S, our latest microfocus sealed tube source for the XtaLAB Synergy-S, delivers more than twice the diffracted intensity while maintaining the versatility to handle a wide range of samples.
When designing the PhotonJetMAX-S, our goal was to enhance performance without increasing operating costs. The PhotonJetMAX-S uses the same tube technology as the PhotonJet-S, ensuring that when a replacement tube is needed, the cost remains the same. Additionally, it operates at the same power level as the PhotonJet-S, making it equally eco-friendly.
PhotonJetMAX-S Overview:
Enhanced performance
The PhotonJetMAX-S leverages Rigaku Innovative Technologies (RIT) optic technology to maximize photon capture from the tube and focus them onto the sample. Compared to the PhotonJet-S, it delivers over two times more photons to the detector.
Superior stability
Performance and stability go hand in hand. That's why the PhotonJetMAX-S is equipped with our water-to-air cooling approach. Our water-to-air cooling system uses water only where it’s necessary—in a closed, low-pressure circuit—to allow precise control of the source temperature and flux yet ensure reliability. Additionally, water efficiently removes heat from the cabinet eliminating the source as a cause of air turbulence and heat near the sample.
Proven reliability
Built with our long-life tube technology, the PhotonJetMAX-S is designed to keep running sample after sample for years, giving consistent performance and reliability.
Low operating costs
Operating the PhotonJetMAX-S won't break the bank. It uses the same tube technology as the PhotonJet-S, so replacement tubes are no more expensive. Plus, its low operating power keeps energy consumption—and your costs—down.
Eco-friendly design
The PhotonJetMAX-S achieves peak performance at just 50 W, making it the most energy-efficient, high-performance microfocus sealed tube system available.
By choosing the PhotonJetMAX-S, you’re enabling the analysis of smaller samples or increasing throughput as needed. With our patented divergence slits included as standard, you can confidently tackle any sample type, whether it has a large or small unit cell, is a single-crystal or powder, or is a twinned sample.
Introducing the C3-1 LMW PEGs Screen, developed by CSIRO’s Collaborative Crystallization Centre and now available through Rigaku Reagents. This screen leverages low molecular weight PEGs—a proven class of precipitants in protein crystallography—to support a broad range of crystallization trials.
Key Benefits:
Optimized concentrations of PEG 200, 300, 400, and 550 for targeting a wide variety of soluble proteins
Diverse and balanced chemical space including pH variation, buffers, salts, and additives
Designed using data-driven insights from hundreds of successful crystallization experiments
Rigaku School for Practical Crystallography
The Rigaku School for Practical Crystallography (RSfPC) is now available on-demand!
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.
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.
Strategy calculation for a IUCr-standard dataset from a “What Is This?” preliminary crystal structure
By Pierre Le Maguerès
What is the purpose?
CrysAlisPro allows crystallographers to collect a fast, low-resolution dataset to determine the connectivity of their compound and thus identify the material. However, this feature, called “What Is This?”, does not aim to collect a complete dataset and may not support full refinement of the model. In the event the crystallographer wishes to continue to collect a dataset to IUCr standards, CrysAlisPro offers a path to a full data collection strategy using the “What Is This?” preliminary model. This also means strategy is based on a more definitive model than is possible with a simple pre-experiment, providing better intensity estimates and reducing the chances of incorrect symmetry and associated completeness problems.
Running “What is This?”:
After Screening, two paths are possible:
Run a pre-experiment, which collects data in several orthogonal crystal orientations for accurate indexing, orientation matrix calculation and IUCr-standard strategy calculation.
Run “What Is This?” to obtain a preliminary model of the compound’s crystal structure.
In this case, we want to run “What Is This?” by pushing the corresponding button, as shown below:
2. In the new dialog, one only must enter the list of expected chemical elements in the compound. The strategy is pre-defined, built for two different types of lattices: 1) triclinic/monoclinic and 2) orthorhombic to cubic, consisting of phi scans allowing for a minimum of 60% completeness. The exposure time is automatically estimated by CrysAlisPro based on the intensity of the reflections collected upon Screening.
Determining an IUCr-standard dataset from the “What Is This?” preliminary model:
Provided the crystal structure has (mostly) been solved, a strategy for a full dataset to IUCr standards can be determined.
From the top, right corner of the CrysAlisPro interface, select ‘START/STOP’ and then select “Start new (based on solved structure)” from the list of options:
2. The usual strategy dialog will then open with a default strategy proposed:
3. Proceed as usual if you wish to change any parameters or start the data collection
Crystals in the News
June 30, 2025
Scientists from the U.S. have synthesized and characterized a morphine derivative, carbamorphine, resulting in significant changes in behavior of the μ-opioid receptor.
July 10, 2025
Microsoft’s AI for Science team has developed and open-sourced BioEmu, a tool for emulating protein equilibrium ensembles.
July 30, 2025
Researchers from China and the US have synthesized and characterized, large , high-quality samples of lonsdaleite, that is, hexagonal diamond.
Politicians Manipulating Statistics: How They Do It and How to Oppose Them is straightforward. Everything you need to know about the subject matter is in the title and subtitle. The text is skewed towards exploring the first part of the subtitle: how politicians manipulate statistics. Eight of the book’s eleven chapters are dedicated to detailing specific examples, particularly in recent history, of political figures manipulating statistics or using statistics in a manipulative way to misrepresent information and further their own political agenda. The other three chapters comprise an introduction to the work, a brief history of the field of statistics, and a final commentary on the subtitle’s second part, which is how to oppose politicians who manipulate statistics.
To be fair to the authors, it’s easy to find clear-cut examples of political figures, especially in recent history, who have used and abused statistics for political gain or to cover up political losses. Finding clear-cut examples of successful opposition to this kind of broad scope statistical manipulation is much trickier. As the authors themselves declare in the final chapter, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem, which is why political figures tend to manipulate statistics. It’s easy to lie when it’s hard to get caught.
Politicians Manipulating Statistics: How They Do It and How to Oppose Them is an academic book and written like a doctoral dissertation. The proliferation of footnotes might be off-putting to a casual reader. However, it is hard to imagine a casual reader of a book with a title like Politicians Manipulating Statistics: How They Do It and How to Oppose Them. It’s a worthwhile read in our current sociopolitical times.
