I'm coming in late here, having only now found time to look at the images. 
It's facinating, isn't it?

Since the lines are not arcs centered on the origin, this isn't mosaic 
spread.

For those who haven't seen the image and the zoom, the diffraction pattern 
clearly shows one very long axis and a couple of much shorter ones.  The 
rotation image is taken rotating around the long one.  The small lines are 
perpendicular to the long axis, and run fairly uniformly, narrowly and 
evenly spaced at the intervals of the reflections along this axis, 
throughout the diffraction pattern. Also it appears that this is a 
rotation of about a degree; Margriet doesn't give us clues for any of 
this.

I'm guessing that whoever said it's a diffuse scatter effect is close to 
the mark.  I think diffuse scatter comes from the contents of each unit 
cell being essentially identical, but that within the molecule things are 
waving around a bit (where are Don Caspar and George Phillips when we need 
them?).  I'll go a touch farther and suggest that it's really disorder -- 
each unit cell is well aligned to the others, but each one is different in 
some way.  I'll guess that the RNA decamer is aligned along this long unit 
cell axis, but in some way either there's an opportunity for the register 
along the RNA axis to slip from one unit cell to the other or each is 
rotated slightly.

On the other hand, the fact that there's a wide distribution of 
intensities in the Bragg spots, which are quite sharp, is confusing -- 
there must be a lot of contrast in the averaged structure for this to be 
true.

Ok, it's interesting, but I have no idea.

Bob

On Wed, 28 Jan 2009, James Holton wrote:

> Hmm.  I don't remember that thread.  However, I personally think it is a good 
> idea to keep the "mosaic crystal" as Ewald and Darwin defined it.  Just 
> because current integration software lumps things together into a "mosaicity" 
> does not mean that every mechanism contributing to the rocking width of a 
> spot should be given the same name.  Especially when it is difficult to 
> describe the mosaic crystal using any other words.  Perhaps Colin could come 
> up with a cool word for unit cell non-uniformity?  Or is he waiting for us to 
> name it after him?  "Nonuniform Anisotropic Variance of Elasticity"?  or 
> "Cells Of Loose INdex"?
>
> Comments and suggestions are welcome.
>
> -James Holton
> MAD Scientist
>
> Jacob Keller wrote:
>> I had thought that in a previous thread, we had all come to a consensus 
>> that actually the largest source of what is normally explained as 
>> "mosaicity" is really differences in unit cell size, due perhaps to uneven 
>> shrinkage in crystals upon freezing or otherwise. I believe that there was 
>> actually an acta cryst paper which investigated all of the various 
>> ingredients of "mosaicity" which supports this (this is why I said it.)
>>  Jacob
>>  *******************************************
>> Jacob Pearson Keller
>> Northwestern University
>> Medical Scientist Training Program
>> Dallos Laboratory
>> F. Searle 1-240
>> 2240 Campus Drive
>> Evanston IL 60208
>> lab: 847.491.2438
>> cel: 773.608.9185
>> email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> *******************************************
>