Crystallography Memes

Posts tagged with Crystallography

The Crystallography Conspiracy Files
Chemistry Physics Lab-life Academia Research
13 days ago 4.9K views 0 shares
The Crystallography Conspiracy Files
What happens when you blend conspiracy theories with the pain of structural biology research? This masterpiece. The truth about crystallography they don't want you to know: those diffraction patterns are just PhD students' tears crystallized under electron microscopes. That complex compound formula? Just keyboard smashing after the 47th failed crystallization attempt. Nothing captures lab desperation quite like calling your field "VOODOO mathematics" while staring at the same protein crystal that refuses to diffract properly for the fifth consecutive month. At least the "Round Pyramid Scheme" is aptly named - that's where your career goes when you can't get publishable data.

So Many Signals
Chemistry Biology Research Lab-life
25 days ago 5.9K views 0 shares
So Many Signals
The eternal struggle of protein crystallography summed up in dragon form. The diagnostic region is all business, giving you that perfect diffraction pattern and structural data. Meanwhile, the fingerprint region is just vibing with its tongue out, creating a chaotic mess of overlapping signals that make your mass spec look like abstract art. Nothing says "six months of work down the drain" quite like realizing your protein's fingerprint region has the structural integrity of a sugar-high toddler.

Crystallographers: Ruining Relationships Since 1913
Physics Materials Science Academia
28 days ago 5.2K views 0 shares
Crystallographers: Ruining Relationships Since 1913
Nothing kills the romance like a crystallographer in your bed. While normal people worry about relationship issues, this poor woman's partner is lying awake contemplating why reciprocal lattice space is denoted by G (for "grid") instead of R (for "reciprocal"). This is the kind of midnight crisis that haunts materials scientists and solid-state physicists everywhere. The notation G has been tormenting graduate students since 1913, and apparently ruining perfectly good relationships too.

Crystalline Budget Crisis
Materials Chemistry Physics
1 month ago 6.2K views 0 shares
Crystalline Budget Crisis
When someone asks about your budget and you're basically living like atoms in a poorly packed crystal structure. Those gaps between the spheres and cubes? That's where my money should be. Materials scientists know the struggle—inefficient packing means wasted space, just like my financial planning means wasted opportunities. The difference? Atoms have an excuse for their inefficiency. My bank account doesn't.

Rosalind Franklin Deserves More Credit
Biology Scientists Science Academia Research
1 month ago 5.9K views 0 shares
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
Chemistry Materials Research Science Lab-life
1 month ago 7.0K views 0 shares
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
Materials Engineering Science
1 month ago 5.3K views 0 shares
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
Biology Scientists Research Science Academia
2 months ago 6.9K views 0 shares
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
Math Chemistry Materials Science
2 months ago 10.2K views 0 shares
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
Math Physics Materials
2 months ago 9.1K views 0 shares
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
Physics Materials Academia
2 months ago 7.6K views 0 shares
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
Biology Scientists Research Academia
2 months ago 9.8K views 0 shares
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.