Hi Ethan,
The crystallographer is the next generation crystallographer: a robot. If there
was a job interview (which I doubt) I guess he was asked about its power
consumption, generated heat etc.
Cheers,
Boaz
Boaz Shaanan, Ph.D.
Dept. of Life Sciences
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Beer-Sheva 84105
Israel
E-mail: bshaa...@bgu.ac.il
Phone: 972-8-647-2220 Skype: boaz.shaanan
Fax: 972-8-647-2992 or 972-8-646-1710
________________________________________
From: CCP4 bulletin board [CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK] on behalf of Ethan Merritt
[merr...@u.washington.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2013 8:00 AM
To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: [ccp4bb] A crystallographer on Mars
The _New Yorker_ frequently publishes decently written articles on a
huge variety of topics. Occasionally they come out with one about
science, sometimes with a focus on a public policy issue, sometimes a
biographical piece about a mainstream or not-so-mainstream scientist,
sometimes a serialized first publication of a book by a scientist
written for a wide audience. So I was not terribly surprised to find
in the 22 April issue an article about the Mars rover Curiosity and
the team that designed it.
<http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/04/22/130422fa_fact_bilger>
Spread across two pages in the center of the issue was a color image
of the Curiosity rover itself. Just the thing to inspire creative use
of one's Lego collection
<http://www.space.com/17058-mars-rover-curiosity-lego-instructions.html>.
But then it got a bit strange. The caption reads:
"... the mission includes a nuclear-powered mobile laboratory,
equipped with lasers, spectrometers, and an X-ray crystallographer".
Wow! Who's the lucky Mars-going crystallographer? Anyone we know?
The article text goes to quote one of the JPL rover team members:
"Curiosity came equipped with lasers, spectrometers, and a gas
chromatograph. It had a radiation detector, an X-ray crystallographer,
and a complete weather station. [...] It was like a Hummer with a
half-dozen scientists crammed inside".
OK, so at least our lucky crystallographic colleague has some company
out there on Mars. Still, I do wonder exactly what it said in the
job ad they responded to. Anyone know what sort of X-ray source they
packed with them?
Ethan
