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Crystals and Life: A Personal Journey

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Modern structural biology adds a third dimension to biochemistry. Rather than puzzling over bands on a gel or struggling to decode the linear sequence of a protein or nucleic acid, the modern structural biologist sits at the computer and glides virtually through landscapes of titanic molecules to examine active sites, ligand binding pockets, hydrogen bonding, or some other aspect of molecular nature. The one technology that has, more than any other, made this expansion of perception possible is X-ray crystallography. The methods that were once the province of mineralogists studying exquisite but decidedly non-living crystals have given us new eyes into the workings of life.

But, how is it done? The arcana of crystallography is daunting as can be seen from any textbook on the subject. Is the intelligent layperson to be left with no hope for that elusive quality, scientific literacy, in crystallography without painfully slogging through chapters of dry equations and prose? My advice to anyone seeking scientific literacy is to seek out the literate scientist. For crystallography that scientist is Celerino Abad-Zapatero who has written an introduction to crystallography entitled "Crystals and Life: A Personal Journey". The title is an appropriate word play on the title of a classic in the field, "Crystals and Light" by Elizabeth Wood who was an early popularizer of science with her book, "Science from your airplane window."

For the reader more accustomed to dispassionate technical prose, the informal character of the book is pleasantly surprising. This book is more like sitting down after dinner with the scientist than like sitting in a lecture hall. The chapters are individual essays grouped into subject categories and arranged in logical order. Early chapters provide an intuitive understanding of the basics of crystallographic technique in the author's informal style along with a rich variety of historical vignettes and personal insights. For instance, the technical issue of analysis of waves is presented in analogy to listening to an orchestra in a concert hall along with some information on the life of Fourier. Middle chapters are concerned with such things as the history and importance of the Protein Data Bank or the structure of silk. The later essays focus on the future of crystallography with, for example, a philosophical discussion of the revolutionary nature of the field. There is also an intriguing essay on the thermodynamics of living systems in which the author proposes that life exists in an additional state of matter, the "living state", and ends quoting a poem illustrating how the interplay between static and dynamic forces can produce poetry.

This is not a handbook or practical introduction to crystallography but, for crystallographers the book will be enjoyable for its many insights from an experienced practitioner and its affirmations of the beauty of crystals and crystal structures. It will perhaps be most useful for providing an accurate notion of what crystallographers do and what they are all about to those who may never have the pleasure of refining a protein structure.

This delightful book, in the best tradition of science for the educated layman and humanities for the scientist, brings the world of crystals alive. It resonates! The author's amiable style and broad knowledge as a protein crystallographer and lover of culture combine to give great pleasure to the reader. Present at the creation (he was part of the Purdue team that solved one of the first virus crystal structures) Dr. Abad leads us deeper into the magic world of crystals through these intriguing essays which explore crystallography through the music of Segovia, the designs of the Alhambra, the work of M. C. Escher, the development of x-rays, how we "hear" a symphony or experience Chillida's "Combs of the Wind," "The Ring of the Nibelung," Tolkien's Frodo and more.

This delightful book, in the best tradition of science for the educated layman and humanities for the scientist, brings the world of crystals alive. It resonates! The author's amiable style and broad knowledge as a protein crystallographer and lover of culture combine to give great pleasure to the reader. Present at the creation (he was part of the Purdue team that solved one of the first virus crystal structures) Dr. Abad leads us deeper into the magic world of crystals through these intriguing essays which explore crystallography through the music of Segovia, the designs of the Alhambra, the work of M. C. Escher, the development of x-rays, how we "hear" a symphony or experience Chillida's "Combs of the Wind," "The Ring of the Nibelung," Tolkien's Frodo and more.