I agree with Bill. After a few minutes thinking, in between "jobs working in the yard":
It depends if you need to understand "everything" (I guess that's impossible these days) --- are you comfortable with publishing and defending research results that you do not understand? I am not. In quite a few labs there are crystallographers available who understand and can make sure that they can defend the results/science. If you have such people on staff, I guess (but don't like the sound of it) that you can treat macromolecular crystallography as a "service" and you can focus on other things. But you cannot (should not) publish or defend things you do not understand. A little more involved is the answer "what if the problem is too difficult for standard approaches"? We tend to see a lot of those. Problems where you have to sit and think because all "standard" approaches do not work. Of course these problems cannot be solved without a thorough understanding of standard problems and procedures. My $0.02 (soon to be $-0.02) Mark -----Original Message----- From: William G. Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Sent: Sat, 20 Sep 2008 3:44 pm Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Crystallogrphy today On Sep 20, 2008, at 2:18 PM, Jayashankar wrote:? ? > Dear friends and crystallographers,? ? Are they mutually exclusive?? ? >? >? > During One of my lab meeting ,? >? > I told twinning in crystals are ok, because ccp4's recent releases > just > need? > the keyword TWIN to solve them,? ? I believe the closer you get to complete twinning, the more intractable the problem gets. I don't know if the pain scales linearly with twinning fraction.? ? >? >? > As a new generation research student, I am now confused,? ? This is both normal and proper, but has nothing to do with generation.? ? > is that I need to? > learn and understand all programs(so many...but research does not > mean? > relaying on them)? > to solve my crystallographic problems(is that all)....? > if you see all the queries in ccp4BB is just about undocumented or? > misunderstood program oriented questions.? ? Actually there are many lively discussions about fundamental problems. These will often arise in the context of a specific program, but you still have to understand the problem the program is designed to solve.? >? >? > is that all i have to learn in crystallography in future.? ? That's up to you, but I would say no. Learn the fundamentals. Programs will come and go.? ? >? > Still upto what limitations we are now in crystallography.? > this is my very naive and prime question.? >? > 1.Phase problem? ? This is still "the" problem. Some inroads have been made toward ab initio solutions, but the traditional heavy-atom methods, variations like MAD phasing, and molecular replacement remain in practice the standard approaches for what you usually find in the PDB.? ? >? > 2.twin problem? ? see above.? ? >? > 3.solving intrinsically disordered proteins? ? Crystals give a spatial average, so there is nothing magical you can do to overcome intrinsic disorder.? >? > 4.hetro multimeric proteins? ? ribosomes are I think the current upper bound? ? >? > 5.high order oligomers? ? Chromatin fibers maybe?? ? >? > 6.cryo crystallography? ? This is routine.? ? >? > 7.automation in high through put crystallography? ? The main problem is finding strong enough amphetamines to keep one awake while reading the papers.? ? >? > 8.radiation damage? ? see cryocrystallography, and take lots of vitamin C? >? > 9.kinetic crystallography? ? Laue? There is now a fair body of work, but development for irreversible enzyme systems is probably a worthwhile future goal.? ? >? > 10. crystal growth research (antigravity, pressure )? ? Anti-gravity?? ? >? > 11.stereo graphics? ? In the land of the blind, the one-eyed Macintosh user is king (as long as the program is not X-windows-based).? >? >? > if i am right all the above has been studied (....what we are not > clear? > still about them),? >? > I need an answer to motivate me in doing my research in > Crystallography.? >? > S.Jayashankar? > (A confused new generation research student)? > Research Student? > Institute for Biophysical Chemistry? > Hannover Medical School? > Germany.?
