More about crystallization
in microgravity: One occasionally hears
dismissive comments towards microgravity research,
especially related to the growing of protein crystals
in space. Large crystals are essential for determining
the structure and components of important biological
molecules like proteins and they are difficult to
make.
In fact, for a number of proteins the largest crystals
ever created were made in space. For example,
While the experiments so far have not resulted
in any great breakthroughs, the results validate
the assertion that microgravity does in fact assist
in making these complex, fragile crystals. The brief,
infrequent trips on the shuttle have prevented the
kind of long term intensive research like that carried
out in earth bound laboratories.
Now that the ISS is available, though, we can expect
to see this technique fully investigated (assuming
the ISS crew, which will be limited by funding constraints
to 3 members, has time to carry out the experiments.)
