crystallography and x-ray diffraction

[snowysummer]

know it's a really basic question...but are crystallography and x-ray diffraction the same thing?

[RyanJ]

know it's a really basic question...but are crystallography and x-ray diffraction the same thing?

 

In a way they are and in a way they are not.

 

Crystallography: The science of crystal structure and phenomena.

 

X-ray diffraction: The scattering of x-rays by crystal atoms, producing a diffraction pattern that yields information about the structure of the crystal.

 

So yes in that x-ray diffraction is a part of crystallography but no because crystallography is the general studdy of crystals

 

May I ask why you posted this in the biology section though?

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[snowysummer]

thx a lot!!

i thought it's a way to study proteins and nucleic acids. ....

[RyanJ]

thx a lot!!

i thought it's a way to study proteins and nucleic acids. ....

 

X-ray diffraction can be

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[Yggdrasil]

In the context of biochemistry and structural biology, crystallographers are generally growing protein crystals for use in X-ray diffraction studies.

[RyanJ]

Double post - mods please delete it!

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[RyanJ]

In the context of biochemistry and structural biology, crystallographers are generally growing protein crystals for use in X-ray diffraction studies.

 

Wasn't insulin's structure found through X-ray diffraction?

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[donkey]

I wouldn't be surprised, thousands of protein structures have been deterimined - and as far as I know most of them have been determined by X-ray crystallography.

 

To answer the first question, I would say that x-ray diffraction and crystallography are two integral parts of x-ray crystallography which is using diffraction of x-rays by crystalised molecules (e.g protein) to infer the structure of the molecules. So, technically they're not the same thing but with sloppy english people might be refering to the same thing

[Skye]

Note that crystallography is important for other things, like EPR.