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Bragg centennial special issue

Bragg centennial – celebrating 100 years of X-ray crystallography

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When William Lawrence Bragg outlined the foundations of X-ray crystallography to the Cambridge Philosophical Society in late 1912, he set a ball rolling that is still gathering speed today. Commemorating this landmark scientific event, this special issue of Acta Crystallographica Section A contains a collection of papers contributed by speakers at the Bragg Centennial Symposium held in Adelaide in December 2012. This symposium explored some of the historical context and personal links to the work of Lawrence Bragg and his father, William Henry Bragg, as well as featuring some of the broader scientific and social impact of their achievements.

We have made these articles freely available and hope you enjoy reading this fascinating and affectionate tribute to one of the founding fathers of the IUCr and Acta Crystallographica.

See also the previous special issue: Laue centennial – 100 years of X-ray diffraction.

bragg symposium photo

Speakers and organizers at the Bragg Centennial Symposium, University of Adelaide, 6 December 2012.

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Acta Cryst. (2013). A69, 1-4 [doi:10.1107/S0108767312048490]

Celebrating 100 years of X-ray crystallography

S. W. Wilkins

Articles contributed by speakers at the Bragg Centennial Symposium held in Adelaide on 6 December 2012 are introduced.

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Acta Cryst. (2013). A69, 5-7 [doi:10.1107/S0108767312047514]

A tribute to W. L. Bragg by his younger daughter

P. Thomson

A tribute to W. L. Bragg by his younger daughter is presented.

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Acta Cryst. (2013). A69, 8-9 [doi:10.1107/S0108767312046879]

Sir Lawrence Bragg

M. F. Perutz

An extract from the obituary for Sir Lawrence Bragg by M. F. Perutz [Nature (London), (1971), 233, 74-76] is given.

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Acta Cryst. (2013). A69, 10-15 [doi:10.1107/S0108767312031133]

Background to the Nobel Prize to the Braggs

A. Liljas

W. L. Bragg would have missed the Nobel Prize if his father had been awarded the prize together with von Laue in 1914. Fortunately, the Nobel Committee for Physics was aware of his contributions and decided to award the prize to W. H. Bragg together with his son in 1915, when they were both nominated.

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Acta Cryst. (2013). A69, 16-24 [doi:10.1107/S0108767312034356]

Lawrence Bragg's interest in the deformation of metals and 1950-1953 in the Cavendish - a worm's-eye view

A. Kelly

A research student's view of life in W. L. Bragg's Cavendish Laboratory from 1950-1953 is given. The use of the bubble raft in illustrating the properties of dislocations in crystals is described.

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Acta Cryst. (2013). A69, 25-33 [doi:10.1107/S0108767312046296]

Lawrence Bragg, microdiffraction and X-ray lasers

J. C. H. Spence

The history of Bragg's law, life and work is reviewed with particular reference to the development of X-ray and electron microdiffraction. A summary of recent work applying the hard X-ray free-electron laser to problems in structural biology is given.

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Acta Cryst. (2013). A69, 34-36 [doi:10.1107/S0108767312042924]

The Bragg legacy: early days in macromolecular crystallography

B. W. Matthews

W. L. Bragg's critical role in encouraging, supporting and establishing the field of large-molecule crystallography is reviewed.

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Acta Cryst. (2013). A69, 37-44 [doi:10.1107/S0108767312036021]

The early development of neutron diffraction: science in the wings of the Manhattan Project

T. E. Mason, T. J. Gawne, S. E. Nagler, M. B. Nestor and J. M. Carpenter

Early neutron diffraction experiments performed in 1944 using the first nuclear reactors are described.

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Acta Cryst. (2013). A69, 45-50 [doi:10.1107/S0108767312047587]

The significance of Bragg's law in electron diffraction and microscopy, and Bragg's second law

C. J. Humphreys

The significance of Bragg's law in electron diffraction is discussed, with particular emphasis on the differences between X-ray and electron diffraction. Recent developments in X-ray instrumentation in electron microscopy which enable single atoms to be imaged and identified using X-ray analysis within an electron microscope are described.

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Acta Cryst. (2013). A69, 51-59 [doi:10.1107/S0108767312050453]

Evolution of diffraction methods for solving crystal structures

W. A. Hendrickson

The practices for determining the atomic structures in crystals have changed greatly over the century since Lawrence Bragg introduced the trial-and-error method by which he solved structures for rocksalt, iron pyrite and other salts and minerals. Structure determinations for biological macromolecules first borrowed from the small-molecule tradition that evolved, notably adopting isomorphous replacement; subsequently, however, new approaches have grown to dominate, notably anomalous diffraction and molecular replacement.

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Acta Cryst. (2013). A69, 60-62 [doi:10.1107/S0108767312050441]

Early days in drug discovery by crystallography - personal recollections

P. M. Colman

The neuraminidase inhibitors for treatment of influenza are an early example of drug discovery by crystallography.

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