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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 23h

I almost forgot to add a "Quasicrystals" option in there... quite important since Bragg's law does not seem to help but the waves have spoken: they are crystalline! (reciprocal-space definition - dictionary.iucr.org/Crystal) #Crystallography #Education #BraggYourPattern stecanossa.com/cosplayapp/

$A quasicrystal of point scatterers showing off a strong diffraction beam from the interference of waves emerging from them.$

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

Maybe someone wondered why I did not put a tool to highlight the Bragg's law when it emerges, or maybe not... Anyway, it's there now ("Bragg condition finder" button), plus an "Explain mode" that describes what the options are for and how to use them. Cheers! 🫸🫷 stecanossa.com/cosplayapp/

The "Bragg condition finder" mode active allows to make pictures like this one, where one can highlight the presence of Bragg conditions when seeing a Bragg beam emerging from the interference pattern. The image shows a small array of scatterers, generating a coherent outgoing beam, with the characteristic parallel lines and solid angles highlighting two theta angles and scatterers planes involved in generating the strong intensities.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I still remember the eye-opening moment when I realized that Bragg and diffuse scattering are both just a sum of waves... I can finally share an applet where anyone can put it into action. No equations, just a play of cosines: CosPlay 👉 stecanossa.com/cosplayapp/ #Crystallography #TotalScattering

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

A few episodes later they do go there: that's how they imagined SPring-8 would look like in 2032 ...✍️

A sky view of the SPring-8 synchrotron in year 2032, as illustrated in the second series of the anime Ghost in The Shell (2nd GIG)

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

When I first watched Ghost in the Shell, in 2007 or so, I really wasn't ready to get this detail... #SPring-8

A screenshot from the Series Ghost in the Shell 2nd GIG, Ep. 9. During an investigation scene, the agents mention the possibility of getting samples to the Japanese synchrotron radiation facility Spring-8.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

♨️ Warming up Fourier Tiler with a new release, including Temperature param. in the crystal builder! Also: my fancy friends using macOS will not be left alone in this one 🫶 Have fun! ...and let's hope this new version makes the Reviewers happy 😏🤞 Get your copy here: github.com/stecanossa/F...

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

What do electroactive frameworks, a walk in the beautiful Ewha W.U. campus, and a delicious bulgogi feast have in common? Our guest @manuelsouto.bsky.social visiting us for a great lecture and equally great discussions! 🌟 Looking forward to more visits and exchanges between our groups, Manuel! 🙌

A collage picture of our guest, Prof. Manuel Souto (Universidad Santiago de Compostela), visiting us at Ewha Womans University, delivering a lecture in front of our group and other Professors, and joining us for a great lunch together.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Intensity analysis of a dataset can produce some artistic gems... or maybe is the "Eye of the beholder" thing. (yes, the flat field correction of that detector was awful) #Crystallography #Sciart

$An image produced by analyzing an X-ray diffraction dataset and plotting, for a series of Q intervals, the highest 10% values encountered in a frame containing the pixel-wise intensity median of all frames.$

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

A few days ago it's been confirmed that IUCr2032 will be hosted in South Korea, Incheon; walking across the wonderful Incheon airport I think crystallographers from all over the world will agree the choice is truly "spot on" 😌 #BraggYourPattern, #IUCr2032

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Another thing I discovered is that Banff is rich in stripey wonders... mostly (but not entirely) geological ✨ #BraggYourPattern

A smooth rock with a dull grey colour and beautiful orange stripes.

A massive rock (ca. 1x1x0.4 meters) with a dark grey colour and countless thin orange streaks within, visible from its exposed section.

A large orange rock with smooth surface and a myriad of grey lines.

A chipmunk eating nuts on a rock, showing off his beautiful fur with black and white stripes on its back.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Impressive case of the renowned pine stacking at Banff National Park

A young pine tree with oddly equally spaced horizontal branches.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

If you are attending #IUCr2026, feel welcome to drop by at tomorrow's Software Fayre, where I will give a lecture and practical session on using Fourier Tiler for enhancing your crystallographic teaching, learning, research... or just for casual fun! #crystallography #totalscattering

The ad of a talk titled "Fourier Tiler - A software for creative associative learning of structure-scattering relationships.", reporting the date 13th August, and room 220, time 16:00 to 16:45.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Today I asked myself the same question in reciprocal space... and I know that to an experienced eye this image damages my crystallographic reputation in at least 3 ways.

$A diffraction image showing a saturated Bragg reflection surrounded by speckle-containing rings, in an overall very grainy diffraction pattern.$

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

woops #crystallography (nothing compared to my "broken R1" record anyway)

A detail of Olex2 interface displaying the R1 and wR2 factors, with the first one reading "586.69%"

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

The thrill of seeing clean systematic absences in the peaktable hits me every time, exactly as it did a decade ago... it really never gets old. I don't think this is normal but it feels good so yay! 🫠 #crystallography

A clean peaktable from CrysAlisPro, showing perfectly spaced systematic absences.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

📢 New #FourierTiler release! A few fixes, loading animation... and something really cool: an atomic tile builder to create your unit cell approximant with a few clicks, from your favourite cif file — A significant step closer to the #crystallography lab and classroom. 👉 github.com/stecanossa/F...

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

I keep thinking about it: Koreans love #crystallography but most don't know it yet - Tetragonal lattice at Incheon International Airport, Seoul

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Nice gadget idea for MOF2026 by @antonpaar.bsky.social, after all that's how Robson started it.. although I could not find a way to make Td nodes. Plenty of time to upgrade it for EuroMOF2027 😏

A couple of models built with ball and sticks: a truncated octahedron and a pair of eclipsed grapheme sheet structures.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

📢 FourierTiler v1.1 upgrade! Now you can play with pair distribution and Patterson function, mosaicity, powder diffraction, and PDF. For those who learn and teach #crystallography and #totalscattering: channel your creativity and see what happens ✨ #BraggYourPattern 👉 github.com/stecanossa/F...

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

My University clearly loves crystallography 🤩 🫶

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Having an ethical dilemma now, since in this version anyone will be able to make very scary images for crystallographers. This one reminded me of a few #MOFs... especially when you don't take care of keeping the solvent quiet in there.

$a smeared and diffuse diffraciton pattern made by tuning gaussian smoothing and azimuthal smearing in Fourier Tiler.$

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

I'm implementing some new #FourierTiler functions for my powderdiffy friends; after all single crystal diffraction is just a highly-mono-oriented powder diffraction, isn't it... pity for that nice diffuse "scattering" though 🍃 #Crystallography #TotalScattering #FourierTransform #BraggYourPattern

Four different patterns calculated from a MOF-5 simulant tiling using Fourier Tiler. The four patterns are computed by considering a mosaic orientation spread of 0, 3, 10, 90 degrees. As a result, the pointy Bragg peaks smear into arcs, large lines, and eventually homogeneous circles, while the diffuse scattering features from missing cluster defects are not recognizable anymore, if not for a bright blob in the centre.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

#FourierTiler already gets fans requesting options that I really had to add.. so here you go: release upgrade! github.com/stecanossa/F... New options: Log scale, non-squared FT magnitude, and export of 16-bit tiff images for those who cannot really stand small "dynamic ranges" 🗻 #BraggYourPattern

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

An interesting feature of #FourierTiler is that you can create mosaics resembling actual structures... and if you pick one that consists of a repetition of a single layer, the pattern is strikingly similar to a scientifically accurate one! #Crystallography starts when asking why they are different.

A side-by-side comparison of a pattern produced by COF-366 tiling simulant, and actual COF-366 atomistic model. The patterns differ mostly in intensities magnitude, and not in their distribution or the shape they form.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Found this pattern on a sun-dried wooden pillar on a hike today - nice educational analogue for the mosaic structure of single crystals isn't it? Such a well behaved cracking #BraggYourPattern

$A series of cracks in a wooden pillar form parallelepipeds with similar sizes, and an overall fractal structure of cracks and sub-cracks.$

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

... and before people get scared by the GitHub page: Fourier Tiler is a completely GUI based, user friendly program anyone can play with, and it does not require any installation 😉 Please have also a look at the manual, where I show examples of educational uses of it. github.com/stecanossa/F...

Fourier Tiler GUI interface with all the available options on display.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

And of course now anyone can flood Bluesky with their custom patterns... add the tag #FourierTiler so people don't miss any and can find them back! And of coruse, let's saturate #Braggyourpattern as well 😏

disordered alternation of white squares tilted to the right or to the left.

total scattering pattern of the tilted squares pattern, showing sharp peaks but also diffuse bands radiating as eight broad "spikes" from the centre.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Time for a second casual #crystallography tip: peak tables in lattice viewers are not showing you the reciprocal space of the crystal, but just some intensity maxima! If you think it's a detail, I have a section and a figure explaining why in my recent tutorial review: pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

A condensed picture taken from the referenced article (Fig. 4). A more detailed description of its details can be found in Section 3 and in the caption of the Figure in the same article.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Following an apparently common attraction of crystallographers for cacti (is it the symmetry? Ancient urge for needles to mount crystals? Low maintenance allowing for synchrotron trips? Don't know...), allow me to introduce my first Korean flatmate - well, spiky mate actually. #crystallography

A yellow small coffee mug hosting a small round cactus with long, healthy spikes.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Dear friends, I'm delighted to announce open PhD positions at Ewha Womans University! If you know someone looking for a PhD or a MSc+PhD position, has a passion for the beauty of MOF structures, and doesn't mind the unbelievable nature, food, fun, and cultural marvels of Seoul, feel free to share 🌟

A beautiful view of the new Institute for Multiscale Matter and System at sunset, with the description of the job posting:

"Fully funded PhD positions available at Ewha Womans University-Institute for Multiscale Matter and Systems, jointly supervised by Prof. Hoi Ri Moon and Prof. Stefano Canossa. Selected candidates will work at the new IMMS institute supported by the National Research Laboratory 2.0 program. Here, they will join an international team in harnessing structural complexity to uncover uncharted territories in the chemistry of porous materials, focussing on one or a combination of the following topics:
1- Design and applications of defect-engineered metal–organic frameworks (MOFs).
2- Development of automated and autonomous laboratories for reticular materials discovery.
3- Design and applications of MOF glasses and complex heterostructures.
4- New total scattering methods based on X-ray and electron crystallography.

The ad continues with some important details on the application requirements and process:

"REQUIREMENTS FOR APPLICANTS
We welcome applications from female candidates of any origin, having relevant academic education and genuine enthusiasm to join our research vision and lead future innovation in Chemistry and Materials Science.
A strong background in one or more of the following is highly desirable: coordination chemistry, solid-state chemistry, or crystallography.
Excellent English communication skills, both written and oral, are essential.
N.B. Joining the group as MSc intern and connecting MSc and PhD activities is possible.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE
To apply, please send the documents listed below at s.canossa@ewha.ac.kr using as subject “OT_2026-01”. Please note that, for practical reasons, applications stating different subjects will not be considered. Application documents (in pdf format):
(1) One- or two-page CV covering academic education and areas of focus/expertise.
(2) One-page letter describing research interests and motivation for joining the group.
(3) Recommendation letter from the MSc thesis supervisor (not required for joint MSc-PhD applicants).

We look forward to hearing from you! "

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Spotted in Seoul, Gangseo-gu: the artwork is called "Portal", but I think a good alternative would be "Saltgate". A porous material in some way #chemsky #crystallography

A tall ring of interpenetrated cubes, made of stone.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

It really is a special moment I can only now truly understand 🌸

A road in Seoul city centre, covered in white, fully blossomed cherry trees.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

#BraggYourPattern Seoul Edition #3: detail of a bronze sculpture at Ewha Womans University. amorphous in a way, crystalline in another... Depending on the wavelength ✨

Detail of a bronze sculpture showing triangles joined in an aperiodic pattern, reminiscent of a glassy atomic structure.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

#BraggYourPattern Seoul Edition #2: a... "45° stone wall"? Not quite sure how to call it but I questioned my cartesian reference for a second... Spotted in Namsan Sky Forest trail.

A wall of square grey stones, but everything is tilted by 45° for some cool reason.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

#BraggYourPattern Seoul Edition #1: it must have taken an incredible patience to make this packing masterpiece decorating Sungnyemun Gate 🌺

A wall of rectangular stones, well packed despite having all different size, larger at the bottom, gradually smaller towards the top. Many light grey, some sand-yellow with a rose hue.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

... and remember not to cool down your Kilt too quickly, if you don't wanna end up with domain boundaries 🥃 (I might prefer it this way though)

A patchy version of the quoted pattern, where the selection of the origin of the tile has two options, creating a domain structure.

The squared Fourier transform amplitude of the other picture, with a cold bluish-white colour map.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

It's been a while since I posted #FourierTransforms, so thought I would risk getting bored with some periodic tilings... until I've found a nice case of #pseudosymmetry in a Tartan pattern 🧐 Can you spot its origin? (pun intended) #crystallography

A scottish Tartan pattern made of red, yellow, white and blue stripey bands on a dark green background.

Squared Fourier transformed pattern from the Tartan motif, showing the absence of a mm or higher symmetry.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Oh, I feel a bit "niche" now (peripheral sounds bad)

A bluish-green nebula-looking universe of Bluesky accounts, with me in the periphery of the "Nebula Research Cluster"

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Today is my last day of physical presence at ETH Zurich, so I thought I would prove to my colleagues that 3n-fold symmetry goes way better with tarts than the mainstream 2- or 4-fold ones! 😋 Did not hear any contrasting opinion during the meeting #SymmetryBaking #crystallography

The sequence of preparation of a jam tart, and the final product. Above, the tart is prepared by partitioning the area in 6 parts, and filling them with, in order, blackberry, apricot, blackberry, apricot, blackberry, apricot jams. a few decorative streaks of italian "frolla" butter dough created a nice 6-fold woven pattern.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

🧐 ... there's probably some non-human presence deciding if I passed the "human identity" test, failing if we assume that the image was relevant

A catcha test with QOQW to be guessed: I guessed QOQE by mistyping and the test succeeded anyway ...

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

... and as if that wasn't special enough, I had the chance to give a 1-day workshop on single-crystal diffraction and #3Dtotalscattering to more than 30 (!) enthusiastic students — exactly on 'Fat Thursday'. Who else had free delicious paczki making a surprise appearance during their lectures? 😏

A collage of image to commemorate a successful crystallography workshop at the University of Wroclaw, including a smiling Wojtek bringing a bunch of delicious polish donuts to all participants (me included :P)

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

"If they have a beer blackboard, it's a good place" 🦗

The wall of the Pinta craft beer pub in Wroclaw, showing a colourful mix of beer listed on a blackboard with artistic pictures to represent every beer. The signature of a good beer tasting venue.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Nice! I Wish I had them here (of course for symmetry evaluation purposes... you know, in person you get a better feeling for it). #BakeYourPattern

A tiling of cookies inspired by the works of M. C. Escher. Each cookie resembles a flying bird with googly eyes and a very tasty look! the original image was modified by adding symbols for the symmetry elements, highlighting the presence of three-, six-, and two-fold rotation axes.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Back in office to find a lovely gift from the OlexSys team... their iconic photographic calendar! 🫶 Very relatable image to kickstart January 2026: "Ants on a mission" - Irrelevant to the naive eye, resolved, and slowly but surely building much bigger things than themselves. 🐜

A thick-paper calendar sheet with a Photograph printed on it. The picture shows a bunch of ants collaborating, walking along a white rough surface without a recognizable order, and apparently marching North-East.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Spotted in Rome: a researcher-sized Moka pot (possibly pun intended)

A huuuge Moka coffee pot, roughy 1.2 meters tall, with a shocked me behind it.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

More interesting stats by anisota.net/harvest Cryptic combinations emerge, probably a message from a greater consciousness from a parallel (reciprocal?) dimension: "Lattice scientists" "Hope symmetry" "Paper crystals" "Disordered community" and most importantly... "Soon Science" 😌

$A word cloud of my most used terms on Bluesky posts. Top 10: 1.structure 2. those 3. crystal 4. space 5. find 6. structures 7. hope 8. symmetry 9. mean 10. diffraction$

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

📢!! After nearly a decade looking for my place in academia, I am incredulous to announce that in 2026 I'll start as research Professor at Ewha University in Seoul, and visiting PI at ShanghaiTech! I'm so thrilled to get closer to my Asian friends 🍻 and finally realize my scientific vision! 🎆 #MOFs

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Turns out that in awarding the chocolate ones they are way less picky #NobelPrize 🪙

A chocolate replica of the Nobel prize medal.

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Stefano Canossa @stecanossa.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Time for possibly the fanciest thing I will experience in my lifetime: #NobelPrize concert is about to begin 🪙

The stage of the Nobel Prize Concert, at the Stockholm Konserthuset.

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