UN to highlight little-known but vital science of crystallography

The United Nations says it plans to increase public knowledge of crystallography, a little known science behind many important advances in human knowledge. Crystallography has helped reveal the structure of DNA and has been vital to fabricating computer memories and designing potent new drugs, but only a tiny fraction of the world's people are aware of the science, a U.N. release said Monday. The International Year of Crystallography will be formally launched at the Paris headquarters of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. "This year marks the centenary of the birth of modern crystallography," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "We celebrate 100 years of ground-breaking advances." The discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals -- that X-rays could be used to "see" the structure of matter in a non-intrusive manner -- led to a Nobel Prize in 1914. "Since this discovery, crystallography has become the very core of structural science, revealing the structure of DNA, allowing us to understand and fabricate computer memories, showing us how proteins are created in cells and helping scientists to design powerful new materials and drugs," UNESCO said. UNESCO will be coordinating related events during the year in cooperation with the International Union of Crystallography, officials said.