…speaking of Crystallography’s birthday, I remembered that when Pam Melroy was here she spoke of protein crystals in space, and experiments going on in the space station.
A quick google search led me to a UAB Magazine article, with the great intro: “It was a small step for man, but a giant leap for protein science when UAB researcher Larry DeLucas, O.D., Ph.D., shot into orbit aboard the space shuttle Columbia on June 25, 1992. DeLucas—the first optometrist in space—conducted experiments on protein crystal growth that were an important step in the drug discovery process for treating AIDS and other devastating diseases.”
According to this article DeLucas has become a world-famous crystallographer, winning several awards for this work.
If my memory serves me right, the reason crystallography is made faster in space is because of the lack of Force of Gravity.
In the absence of gravity, I suppose the total volume of proteins would change…If the bonds are spaced further apart, would that mean new conformations, impossible on earth, could exist in space?
https://www.uab.edu/uabmagazine/breakthroughs/research/proteins-in-space