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Asked by anon-279192 to Martin on 2 Feb 2021.
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Martin Ward answered on 2 Feb 2021:
Hi Oliver, crystals are used in a very wide range of ways and applications, in fact crystals are all around us as, you will find crystals in side many electronic items, medicines, the snow outside and even in the kitchen cupboard – the salt and sugar you use are made up of LOTS of small crystals. The crystals I grow are usually of pharmaceutical materials, the stuff that goes in some medicines and I use them to test their properties, how they behave and change
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Comments
Kate commented on :
In my area (geology) we use crystals as clocks – as they grow the elements they trap tell us when the crystal was growing and can record the temperature pressure as well as tell us about the “flavour” of the magma they were growing in.
Amelia commented on :
The crystals that I work with are made of protein – you may have heard of hemoglobin in blood, or know that foods can be protein rich – my protein is a bit like this.
I use the crystals to find out more about the protein by using a thing called x-ray diffraction. The information I get from this can then be used to make the protein better at its job by changing parts of it.