Image borrowed from WikipediaAuthor: Thomas Splettstoesser
Today I disappointed myself (don't I do that everyday?). Our newcomer T came to me for help with his crystallography homework assignment after hearing that I was a crystallographer. I completely forgot how diffraction patterns are related to crystal lattices, or space groups, or how many asymmetric units there are in any unit cell of a space group. Suddenly I felt so inadequate as a PhD. After many years of training, and many years of not using the knowledge, I am no longer a crystallographer! It is embarrassing, and I feel really sorry to Profs. T, N, R, and P. So I brush up my geeky crystallography knowledge (with the help from wiki), and hopefully tomorrow I will be able to help T.
BTW, T's homework has a really pretty diffraction pattern: a tetragonal crystal's h0l, more regular and impressive-looking than this one.
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