Crystallography Memes

Posts tagged with Crystallography

Rosalind Franklin Deserves More Credit

Rosalind Franklin Deserves More Credit
The historical science burn that keeps on burning! Franklin's X-ray crystallography image (Photo 51) was the crucial evidence for DNA's helical structure, but Watson and Crick swooped in with their model and snagged the Nobel Prize without proper attribution. Talk about academic theft dressed as discovery! The scientific equivalent of copying homework and getting an A while the person who did all the work gets nothing. Justice for Rosalind - her crystallography skills were literally dope as fuck and changed molecular biology forever.

Crystal Structure Supremacy

Crystal Structure Supremacy
Picture a chemist who just spent days growing the perfect crystal for X-ray diffraction, smugly dismissing every other characterization technique in existence. "Raman? IR? EMP? XPS? Please, I can see everything in my crystal structure!" This is the crystallography purist's fantasy world—where a single technique magically reveals all molecular secrets. Meanwhile, spectroscopists everywhere are collectively facepalming. It's like claiming you can understand an entire symphony just by looking at the sheet music without ever hearing the instruments play. The rage comic face perfectly captures the frustration of researchers who can't grow single crystals and have to use—gasp—multiple complementary techniques like normal scientists. The horror!

Defects Hit Different In Different Fields

Defects Hit Different In Different Fields
Left side shows Mr. Incredible looking pristine and happy because crystallographic defects are actually fascinating and useful in materials science. They're literally how we strengthen metals! Meanwhile, civil engineering defects (right side) are the stuff of nightmares that keep structural engineers awake at 3 AM. One field's "interesting anomaly" is another field's "catastrophic bridge collapse." Perspective is everything in science—and so is job security.

The Great DNA Heist

The Great DNA Heist
That famous X-ray diffraction image (Photo 51) showing the helical structure of DNA? That was Rosalind Franklin's work! The meme brilliantly captures one of science's biggest injustices using SpongeBob to show Watson, Crick, and Wilkins getting their Nobel Prize while casually setting Franklin's groundbreaking contribution on fire. Talk about academic theft! Franklin's crystallography was CRUCIAL for understanding DNA's structure, but she died before Nobel recognition and the guys took all the glory. Science history's most infamous "I made this" moment right there!

When Your Mom Is A Crystallographer

When Your Mom Is A Crystallographer
That moment when you realize your mom is a crystallographer with anger issues! The poor geometric shape is experiencing the universal dread that comes when your full name echoes through the house. Except instead of "John Michael Smith," this unfortunate polyhedron gets called "Pentahexagonal Pyritoheptacontatetrahedron!" Mathematicians and chemists everywhere are having flashbacks to being caught drawing molecular structures on the living room wall. Even complex geometric structures aren't immune to maternal wrath!

New Optimal Packing Just Dropped

New Optimal Packing Just Dropped
Finally, a real-world application of the Kepler conjecture! Those Tic Tacs are packed so efficiently they'd make Johannes Kepler weep with joy. The manufacturer clearly hired a mathematician instead of a marketing executive. "How can we fit more mints in the same space? Simple! Just arrange them in a face-centered cubic lattice with 74.05% space efficiency!" Meanwhile, nature's been doing this with atoms for billions of years without bragging about it. The universe's oldest space-saving hack, now available in fresh mint flavor.

We Got Him: Crystallographic Checkmate

We Got Him: Crystallographic Checkmate
That smug Pepe face when you've found the professor's cryptonite! Rhombohedral lattices are notoriously complex crystal structures with non-orthogonal axes and unequal spacing. Converting these to Cartesian coordinates requires a transformation matrix that would make even seasoned physicists sweat. It's like asking someone to manually compute SHA-256 encryption—technically possible but practically sadistic. The professor thought they were untouchable until you hit them with the crystallographic equivalent of "show your work." Now who's sweating through their tweed jacket?

The Great DNA Heist

The Great DNA Heist
The greatest scientific heist of the 20th century! Franklin's X-ray crystallography images of DNA (Photo 51) were secretly shown to Watson and Crick without her knowledge, helping them beat her to publishing the double helix structure. The Soviet Bugs Bunny perfectly captures how Watson and Crick swooped in with their "OUR research" communist meme energy while Franklin, who did the critical experimental work, got historically sidelined. Textbook definition of academic theft wrapped in a Cold War joke. The Nobel Prize committee then twisted the knife by not awarding her posthumously because... *checks notes*... dead people can't win Nobels. Scientific karma eventually prevailed though—Franklin is now recognized as the unsung hero who actually made the discovery possible.

Carbon's Split Personality Disorder

Carbon's Split Personality Disorder
Carbon's split personality disorder is on full display here! 😂 Diamond's crystal structure has buff doge characters locked in a rigid 3D tetrahedral arrangement - strong, inflexible, and ready to cut glass. Meanwhile, graphite is the same carbon atoms but as weak doge characters in flat sheets that slide past each other like they're on ice! Same element, completely different properties - just because of how the atoms are arranged. That's why diamonds are forever, but your pencil leaves marks on paper. Chemistry's version of hitting the gym vs. staying on the couch!

Those Atomic Bonds Are Messing With My Eyes

Those Atomic Bonds Are Messing With My Eyes
Behold the cruel intersection of neuroscience and crystallography! That grid pattern is an optical illusion that appears to move and shimmer even though it's perfectly static—just like electrons refusing to tell you their exact position AND momentum! The poor green-haired fellow is experiencing the visual cortex equivalent of trying to pin down Schrödinger's cat. His brain is screaming "THESE LINES ARE MOVING!" while his rational mind knows they're fixed in place. It's the same feeling you get trying to visualize a 4D hypercube after your third espresso! The universe is laughing at our pathetic meat-based visual processing systems!