Save the date for our upcoming September 18th webinar, where we’ll showcase the PhotonJetMAX and discuss how it can double your photon output without increasing costs.
ECM was great! It's always nice to catch up with our wonderful customers and fellow vendors, and spend time with colleagues. Kudos to the organizers for arranging a great meeting, including the fantastic weather.
The interactions often start before reaching the venue, and this year was no exception. I bumped into Horst and Oleg from OlexSys at Manchester Airport for the flight to Venice.
Our big news was the launch of a new X-ray source: the PhotonJetMAX, delivering over twice as many photons to the detector compared to the already highly capable PhotonJet-S, without an increase in running costs. Fraser and Jakub will present a webinar on September 18th to introduce it further.
We also displayed the next generation of our kappa goniometer, which features several improvements in functionality and ease of use.
Finally, Chris and Emilia ran live demonstrations of the XtaLAB Synergy-ED, showcasing grids with a cocktail of unknown samples prepared by their colleagues.
On a personal note, it was nice to bump into Dr. Jeremy Rawson from the University of Windsor. Jeremy was the external examiner for my PhD viva more years ago than I'd care to admit, back when he was at Cambridge, and our paths hadn't crossed since.
My next conference will likely be the Asian Crystallography Association meeting in December. Perhaps I will see you in Kuala Lumpur.
Mark Benson
Upcoming Webinar
Rigaku PhotonJetMAX-S a high-performance microfocus X-ray source
At this year's European Crystallographic Meeting (ECM), Rigaku Oxford Diffraction proudly introduced our latest products: the PhotonJetMAX-S.
The PhotonJetMAX-S is a high-performance microfocus X-ray source that delivers twice the performance with no increase in operating costs.
Join us for this webinar to discover more about these innovative products, designed to accelerate your research and simplify your work.
Rigaku XtaLAB Synergy-R, a Productivity Tool That Means Success!
Throughout the presentation, Fraser White and speaker Dr. Maxime Siegler, Johns Hopkins University, will establish the significant impacts of the acquisition of the Rigaku XtaLAB Synergy-R on the research at JHU and beyond.
Dr. Maxime Siegler has been formerly trained by some well-respected crystallographers, namely Prof. Carol Brock, Prof. Sean Parkin (University of Kentucky) and Prof. Ton Spek (Utrecht University, The Netherlands), with whom he studied chemical X-ray crystallography and the whole process of crystal handling, data collection, structure solution/refinement of all kinds of difficult samples (e.g., air-, solvent- and temperature-sensitive crystals, twinned crystals, wholly disordered crystals, modulated superstructures with high Z', crystals with multiple phase transitions, etc.). Currently, he is the Director of the X-ray Facility at the Johns Hopkins University (Homewood campus), and has been the author/co-author of 348 peer-reviewed papers.
In this webinar, we will introduce the PhotonJetMAX-S, highlighting how this innovative source can accelerate your research and simplify your work. The PhotonJetMAX-S is a high-performance microfocus X-ray source that delivers twice the performance with no increase in operating costs.
Throughout the presentation, Fraser White and speaker Dr. Maxime Siegler, Johns Hopkins University, will establish the significant impacts of the acquisition of the Rigaku XtaLAB Synergy-R on the research at JHU and beyond.
shares 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.
Double the diffracted intensity, same operating costs
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.
Enhanced performance
The PhotonJetMAX-S leverages Rigaku Innovative Technologies (RIT) optics 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 necessary—in a closed, low-pressure circuit—to allow precise control of the source temperature and flux while ensuring 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.
A team from Canada and China characterized the anti-CRISPR AcrIF25, and showed that it inhibits the type I-F CRISPR–Cas system by pulling apart the fully assembled effector complex.
Scientists from Australia, China and the USA have synthesized and characterizedhydrogen-bonded organic frameworkswith significant hydrogen storage capacity.
September 4, 2024
Scientists from Austria, Germany and the US have taken steps to develop anuclear clockby doping a CaCl2 crystal with 229Th.
Tip of the Month – Exporting mtz files
By Mark Del Campo
Solving PX structures via molecular replacement, SAD, etc. typically requires an mtz output file that is recognized by PX structure solution programs. To automatically have CrysAlisPro export an mtz file with each data collection and data processing run on your instrument, make sure you are using the online (instrument control version) and click on the CrysAlisProPX name in the bottom right corner of the GUI, then on the Protein radio button, and then on the Edit options button.
In the PX options dialog, click on the checkbox for MTZ export data res for use in CCP4. Then, click OK twice to exit the menus.
Now, each time data processing runs automatically or when you reprocess data, there will be 2 mtz files in your experiment directory. The first is an unmerged mtz file simply called your_experiment.mtz. The unmerged mtz file contains all the measured reflections from the data collection and will need to be merged through another program like CCP4, Phenix, etc. (Note: If you have CCP4 installed on your PC and CrysAlisPro has the path to the executable, a CCP4 script will automatically run and you will see a merged mtz file from Aimless in a CCP4 directory within your experiment directory). The second is a merged mtz file called your_experiment_CAPmerged.mtz. This file contains 9 columns: h, k, l, Imean, Imean sigma, I+, I+ sigma, I-, and I- sigma. It is ready to use for structure solution by molecular replacement or SAD.
Finally, you always have ultimate control of the mtz export options during re-finalization (re-scaling).
Open the Results inspector by clicking on the blue and white button and then click on the Refinalize button. In the bottom of the window, CrysAlisPro reports the current exported files. To change them, click on the Export options button.
In the window that opens, you can toggle mtz export on and off with the Export MTZ button. You can also toggle the automatic CCP4 Aimless run (if you have CCP4 installed) with the CCP4 scaling button.
Sara Imari Walker’s Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life’s Emergence is an introduction to a relatively new concept in our understanding of the universe—assembly theory. Walker is a pioneer of assembly theory—a theoretical physicist and astrobiologist by training, her interests have long been held by the questions “what is life?” and “where did life come from?” and “what other life is out there?” Assembly theory is hard to wrap one’s brain around, let alone explain in a way that anyone could conceptualize it, yet Walker does a marvelous job of simplifying complex theoretical ideas. The underlying question throughout Walker’s book is how we can define life on other planets unless we have a clear understanding of what life is and what it means to be alive on our own planet.
Life as No One Knows It book has no introduction. Walker dives right in, asking "what is life?” in the first chapter, challenging the reader’s perceptions of both the definition of life and what it means to truly be alive. It’s tricky to take a concept as seemingly fundamental as life—if you’re not alive, you’re dead right?—and turn it around. In the third chapter, Walker flips the question on its head, asking “life is what?,” underscoring that despite her background as an astrobiologist, this book is about theoretical physics. Assembly theory is just that, a theory. It’s a way of looking at the information we have about the formation of the universe, and life within the universe to better understand why things have happened and why things continue to happen. In the later chapters, Walker explores what the implications of assembly theory are for finding alien life, asking, of course, what alien life is and how would we know it if we saw it, as well as delving a little into the origins of life and where we come from.
Assembly theory is challenging conceptually. Walker acknowledges this repeatedly throughout the book; however, she does an excellent job of communicating at the very least a general concept of the theory. Even if the reader cannot grasp the larger theoretical physics at play, they should walk away from reading it with something to think about—seemingly simple questions like “what is life?” and “am I alive?” suddenly become multifaceted and complex in a way that is hopefully refreshing and stimulating.
