P212121

X-ray crystallography in a basic sense studies the result of photons interacting with electrons.

How do we describe how photons are reflected?

Richard Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics.

Vega Science has put together a series lectures that Richard give at the University of Auckland in 1978.

Below is a time line with a couple of notes from his 77 minute lecture entitled:
Part 1: Photons – Corpuscles of Light

00:00 Introduction
04:40 Light
09:35 Theory of interaction with light
14:42 Great analogy between checkers and nature
20:20 Explains the theory
23:15 ‘I enjoyed your lecture, but didn’t understand it’
26:15 ‘Nobody understands it’
33:13 Possible meaning
34:45 Describes theory
40:48 Reflection
47:50 Science is based on probabilities
57:10 Answer to the reflection Problem
68:10 Questions

The lecture makes me wonder about the relationship between protein crystal size and the probability of photons being diffracted. I am starting to get uneasy about how much is explained away due to crystal packing.