IUCr news digest 24 November 2014

A group of crystallographers came together on Wednesday 19 November at the RSC Chemistry Centre, Burlington House, London, UK to discuss Communicating Crystallography as part of the Chemical Crystallography Group Autumn Meeting 2014. The morning session opened with energetic presentations focusing on outreach from Anna Warren (Diamond Light Source), Peter Hoare (University of Newcastle) and Chick Wilson (University of Bath). The afternoon session, which looked at the publishing process and some of the latest activities from the Royal Society of Chemistry, started with Guy Jones, followed by Serin Dabb and then David Sait. After tea, the final session began with a presentation from Brian McMahon (IUCr) entitled “From structural data to structural knowledge”. A discussion of data, databases and deposition with a panel comprising John Helliwell (University of Manchester), Serin Dabb (RSC) and Ian Bruno (CCDC) brought the event to a close. A link to the individual presentations or information relating to them will be made available shortly.

From crystals of cancer drugs to atomic patterns drawn in the sand, a new photography exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK perfectly captures the beauty and intricacy inherent in the science of crystallography.Illuminating Atoms, by the photographer Max Alexander, depicts a series of documentary images of crystallography experiments in action alongside portraits of modern-day crystallographers.

The exhibition, which is sponsored by the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the Wellcome Trust, GSK, AstraZeneca, Pharmorphix and the Diamond Light Source, conveys the untold story of crystallography, demonstrating the range of science taking place and the rich and vibrant community working in this field. The final opportunity to view Illuminating Atoms will be Saturday 29 November from 10am to 4pm; for more information, please visit www.stfc.ac.uk/illuminating_atoms_portraits.

Further activities promoting crystallography take place this week. The article "IYCr2014: Spreading the Word About Crystallography in an International Year" by Brian McMahon and Michele Zema (IUCr) will be discussed online from 24 to 26 November during the 2014 Fall Newsletter virtual conference of the DivCHED CCCE of the American Chemical Society. The full article is available here. To take part in the online discussion you need to set up a free account at http://confchem.ccce.divched.org/2014FallCCCENL.

Finally, if you are attending the MRS Fall Meeting in Boston, USA next week, do take the time to visit the IUCr booth #114 where we’ll be pleased to see you. At our booth you can

• learn more about our journal portfolio including our new gold open-access journal, IUCrJ, and other titles in our portfolio
• find out details of our “meet the editor” session taking place during the afternoon coffee break on Wednesday 3 December with Dr Andrew Allen, Editor, Journal of Applied Crystallography
• ask our Business Development Manager about open-access options and how Altmetrics and Kudos can help you promote your own work
• enter our prize draw to win a copy of A Little Dictionary of Crystallography.

We look forward to seeing you there.