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Perfect Crystals Grown by Cancelling Out Gravity on Earth

Posted by Zonk on from the hippies-across-the-globe-cheer dept.

willatnewscientist writes "Researchers in the Netherlands and Japan have found a way to grow perfect crystals in 'zero gravity' here on Earth. By exploiting the way a powerful magnet influences diamagnetic materials they have been able to grow protein crystals without the defects normally introduced as a result of gravity (The same trick has been used to levitate a frog before). Normally, such crystals are grown in space, such as aboard the International Space Station."

18 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Yes, but... by ChePibe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did they grow the crystals INSIDE of a levitating frog?

    Now that would be cool.

    Mmmm... frog crystals...

    1. Re:Yes, but... by edwardpickman · · Score: 2, Informative

      I feel for the frogs. I've had kidney stones. Even perfect ones would hurt like hell.

    2. Re:Yes, but... by ChePibe · · Score: 5, Funny

      True. But then the frog could boastfully say, "I even piss perfection."

    3. Re:Yes, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Mmmm... frog crystals...

      "We secretly replaced these French diners' frog legs with Folger's Crystals. Let's see if they notice the difference...!"

    4. Re:Yes, but... by xENoLocO · · Score: 3, Funny

      A talking levitating perfect crystal growing frog? ... the plot thickens!

      --
      "The need to build the internet comes from something inside us, something programmed... something we can't resist."
    5. Re:Yes, but... by fbartho · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, it crystallizes!

      --
      Gravity Sucks
  2. One big problem. by jd · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It won't work for all types of crystal, only those with specific magnetic properties. Proteins are fine, but semiconductors - where defects in the tens of nanometers are highly significant - won't be growable this way. Of course, there's nothing to stop you launching a vaccuum flask-like container into space and have crystals grow in true microgravity conditions at a very very slow pace. Sadly, there isn't a market for million-dollar CPU cores.

    On the protein side, this will be interesting, though. As the article states, growing highly precise protein structures is a Big Deal and very very hard. The potential benefits to the medical industry are hard to predict, but will be significant. This isn't merely a fun exercise, this could have some very substantial benefits. Not sure if it could be used to amplify prions, but if it could, that would make studying the B**** so much easier.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    1. Re:One big problem. by semiotec · · Score: 4, Informative

      1. likely won't work for all proteins. It seems this just allows the crystals to grow BIGGER (which is a very good thing) but doesn't actually make the process easier. Protein crystals are a bastard to grow, depending on a lot of things like solvent conditions, temperature, even vibrations and so on. They only used lysosome as a test, which had been done a long time ago, as a protein, it's easy to produce and purify. You can even order it by the grams cheaply from Sigma, it's sort of the biological equivalent of buying sugar and salt from the supermarket. Would be more interesting if they tackled something more difficult, like a big complex or something.

      2. Prions won't crytallise (easily...). They are fibrous. I think the closest type of things people have managed was fibrinogen, and they had to chop up that protein into its core region before it can be done (and it was a major finding when it was published). Prions in its "bad" form aggregates fast and is resistant to a lot of tricks to break it down. Furthermore, even prion in its "good" form seem to lack defined structure, so even the good form isn't going to crystallise that well.

    2. Re:One big problem. by Enlightenment · · Score: 2, Informative

      But then it wouldn't grow symmetrically--you'd have to rotate it extremely fast, changing direction periodically and quickly, to achieve that sort of effect.

    3. Re:One big problem. by jd · · Score: 4, Insightful
      When you rotate something, provided it remains intact, you are changing the direction of all the particles constantly. This can be a good thing - you can create "artificial gravity" by spinning things up by using this method. Because more massive particles will have more inertia than lighter particles, it can also be used to separate things that are mixed together. This is how plasma is extracted from the other components in blood, for example. When things are loosely connected, there is also usually some dragging going on, which is why rapidly-spinning galaxies have a spiral shape. The extra distance the outside needs to travel is so great and the connection so weak that the arms are smeared backwards. For more tightly-connected things, there's usually some strain built up. Your computer's hard drive is probably spinning at 7200 revolutions per minute, which is equal to 120 times a second. The center of the spindle has a speed of zero feet per second. The outside of the drive is traveling at around 157 feet per second. That's not insignificant, although drives are built to easily withstand such stresses. I've seen many a hard drive fail due to head crashes and bearing failures, never deformed surfaces.

      This is not to say that spinning couldn't be used to prepare certain materials under certain conditions. As I said, separation is a major use for spinning, and artificial gravity is another. Don't ever be put off by people saying that something can't be used for X because the odds are that it IS used for Y and will be used for Z once someone figures out what Z is. Asking questions like this is important, because that's when intuition usually gets converted into inspiration.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  3. Re:Cost? by richdun · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ahem... from TFA:

    "What's more, the technique will be faster and much cheaper than growing crystals in space, he says."

    So at least they say it will be much cheaper.

  4. The Incredible Levitating Frog by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Informative

    The same trick has been used to levitate a frog before

    Here's the frog they're talking of:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Frog_diamagneti c_levitation.jpg

    And here's a more boring example with graphite, although maybe more clear:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Diamagnetic_gra phite_levitation.jpg
    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    1. Re:The Incredible Levitating Frog by AnonymousCactus · · Score: 5, Informative

      Static jpegs are so 5 years ago.
      Diamagnetic Frog on YouTube

  5. EBAY listing-- by tazsl · · Score: 3, Funny

    1 levitating crystaline frog pendant--$2,300,000.21 Amaze your friends! Great school project! Requires 1 nuclear reactor(not included) Coming next week--antiproton earrings--

    --
    for every complex problem , there is a solution that is simple , neat , and wrong.
  6. Re:Wait.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    If the crystal growing frog eats the bugs, is that a feature?

  7. Re:Cost? by MrMr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It will cost the space program a lot of support.
    There goes the 'we can make much better crystals of proteins in zero-G' sales pitch (Anyone dare to guess how many http://www.pdb.org/PDB entries are space-crystals and how much better they are than the flatland versions?)

  8. Think of the spin-off technologies by jollyreaper · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just imagine when they adapt this same technique to work with breasts!

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  9. Good science, bad headline by viking80 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I write this comment as I sit in my gravity canceling chair, sipping a coke contained in a gravity canceling device called a glass. Even the keyboard is supported by a gravity canceling surface I call a table.

    --
    don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org