Reasons to Believe Africa - Scholar Affiliates Interview - Charmaine Arderne & David Block

Charmaine earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Crystallography, specializing in Chemistry. Her research centers on studying small molecule crystal structures using X-ray methods. She grows tiny single crystals and applies single-crystal X-ray diffraction. By shining X-rays onto the crystal, she obtains a diffraction pattern, analyzing it mathematically to create an electron density map. This map helps determine atom positions, revealing the molecular structure. The fascinating part is the diffraction pattern's visual similarity to the night sky.