Article: All possible permutations: Jacek Klinowski, Filipe Almeida Paz and Robert Bell examine the usefulness of a library of all possible arrangements of atoms in organic structures.(Crystal architectures)

Perhaps the most fascinating feature of the natural world is its incredible variety of shape and form. Millions of organic and organometallic chemical compounds and close to 100 000 inorganic ones are known. And new compounds are constantly being synthesised. The classic inorganic structure text by Wells (1) weighs 2kg and describes thousands of representative crystalline inorganic structures. Strikingly, there are only a handful of physical laws which give rise to such variety: Nature is economical with rules, but profligate with form, The same applies to the living world: over one million species of insect have so far been described in Brazil alone, and there are ...

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