Ideally, when finding a drug, scientists start with a crystal structure of receptor proteins found on the surfaces of cells.

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Russell and Xu's method starts with a sliced crystal, either sapphire or silicon, cut at an angle that exposes a ragged section of the crystal's lattice structure.

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On April 8th 1982 Dr Shechtman fired a beam of electrons at a slice of aluminium-manganese alloy, in order to understand its crystal structure.

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The other, which faces a specialised type of solar cell made of a material called indium gallium arsenide, is sculpted into a structure called a photonic crystal that causes it to emit infra-red radiation selectively at the frequency best absorbed by the cell.

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Spurs' plan had involved knocking down most of the structure and rebuilding it without the running track, instead rebuilding the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace.

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This fantastic plastic has molecules far longer than those of regular polyethylene, and these molecules are, in addition, packed tightly into a crystal structure rather than being scattered at random.

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This means there is a greater chance of their meeting one another, allowing an extra atom to fill a hole and restore the crystal structure.

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