Science of crystallography can be used to drive future development: Study

The New Delhi-based National Science Centre believes that the science of crystallography can be used to drive future development.

In a study, the NSC described crystallography as a science that examines the arrangement of atoms or molecules, and opined that it can be applied to a wide variety of areas - from agriculture to development of cures for plant and animal diseases, water purification, reduce carbon emissions and development of ecological construction materials.

The NSC said that with the world population expected to grow from seven billion in 2011 to 9.1 billion by 2050, the demand for food would increase by 70 per cent.

It said that crystallography can be used to analyse soils, contribute to the development of cures for plant and animal diseases, can help improve water quality in poor communities, develop new products which lower a home's energy consumption while curtailing carbon emissions, such as insulating materials, identify new materials which reduce the cost of solar panels, contribute to the development of ecological construction materials in developed and developing countries. It can also help to reduce pollution by replacing chemical solvents with 'green' inorganic solvents based on ionic liquids and CO2. It can help to reduce mining waste and related costs by contributing to methods which selectively extract only the materials required. Crystallography can tackle the growing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics as well to combat dreaded diseases.

Crystallography helps in developing new materials to be utilized in development of 'smart clothing' using Bluetooth and sensors which can gauge body functions of the wearer, including pulse, heartbeat, muscle stress and body fat and transmit messages to a wearer's cell phone. Drug design is strongly reliant on the use of crystallography. A pharmaceutical company looking for a new drug to combat a specific bacterium or virus first needs to find a small molecule capable of blocking the active proteins (enzymes) that are involved in attacking the human cell. Knowing the precise shape of the protein allows scientists to design drug compounds that can clamp onto the 'active' sites on the protein and thereby disable their harmful activity.

Certain substances do not melt directly into a typical liquid but rather pass through a stage that flows like a liquid but has many characteristics of a solid. In this stage the substance is a liquid crystal. It maintains some of the ordered structure of a crystalline solid, which is the most common type of solid. Thin layers of chemical compounds are used in the liquid crystal displays (LCDs) of many electronics products. LCDs are commonly used in digital clocks, calculators, cell phones, portable electronic games, viewfinders for digital cameras, and flat-screen televisions and computer monitors. The liquid crystal does not produce light itself but rather draws on an external source - such as the back light on a television - to form images, making for low-energy consumption.