Blessed Plot: a diagram of the molecular structure of insulin from 1968

http://blogs.mhs.ox.ac.uk/insidemhs/blessed-plot-inside-mhs-blog/

by Hooke • 9 years ago

44 6 9 years ago

blogs.mhs.ox.ac.uk

theoh• 9 years ago

The Science museum has a lot of 3D models from this period and later crystallographic research. Insulin, haemoglobin, myoglobin, DNA.

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/plan_your_visit/... (scroll down for a model by Hodgkins' group)

http://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co13671/fores...

Also, on the aesthetic side of things, there was a famous "transfer" of crystallographic atomic patterns into decorative work at the Festival of Britain (1951): https://wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/atoms-patterns

vilhelm_s• 9 years ago

The Chemical Heritage Museum in Philadelphia also has some exhibits of electron cloud models from the same time period, similar to the penicillin model in this article.

Some photos here: http://imgur.com/a/xcJxn

Their caption says,

For over a decade X-ray crystallographer Roget Burnett toted around the world the bits and pieces of his project of determining the structure of an adenovirus coat protein. He crystallized his protein while a postdoc at the University of Michigan. In 1973 he carried these tiny crystals in capillary tubes to the University of Basel. For the next seven years he and his associates made hundreds of X-ray photographs of crystals. These photographs were transformed (several steps later) into unwieldy plastic sheets showing electron densities at cross-sections of the protein. In 1980 Burnett transported these sheets to Columbia University, where his team examined them to precisely locate the protein's atoms. In 1984 they turned to early computer graphics to model the molecule. Today computers expedite nearly all these steps.

I really like the method of visualizing the electron cloud by printing out many transparent plastic sheets and then stacking them; it's looks very stylish!

subnaught• 9 years ago

A descendent of pluto is still in use: http://www.cryst.chem.uu.nl/spek/platon/pl010000.html

baq• 9 years ago

Fascinating.

gnufx2• 9 years ago

See also http://www.ccp4.ac.uk/dist/html/npo.html, which I'm surprised to see is still there, and fittingly also has Phil Evan's name on it. Note the production of stereo plots which needed practice looking at in the right way to get the effect.

gnufx2• 9 years ago

It's nice to see Eleanor Dodson cropping up here, long a leading light of http://www.ccp4.ac.uk, which might be the most successful UK scientific computing effort.

Blessed Plot: a diagram of the molecular structure of insulin from 1968

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