Science experiments via telepresence at a synchrotron radiation source facility.

Station 9.8 is one of the most oversubscribed and high-throughput stations at the Synchrotron Radiation Source, Daresbury, whereby awarded experimental time is limited, data collections last normally no longer than an hour, user changeover is normally every 24 h, and familiarity with the station systems can be low. Therefore time lost owing to technical failures on the station has a dramatic impact on productivity. To provide 24 h support, the application of a turnkey communication system has been implemented, and is described along with additional applications including its use for inter-continental classroom instruction, user training and remote participation.

Molecular fragment electric moments derived from the fit of the experimental electrostatic potential. Application to the water molecule.

The electrostatic potential is a multicenter property that can be expressed as a sum of the contributions of electric moments located at each atomic site of a molecule. Independently of the model used to generate the electrostatic potential around the system, these atomic moments can be accurately obtained by the fit of this physical property outside the van der Waals envelop. However, the larger the system, the greater the number of parameters. In this study a way is proposed to reduce the number of centers in the representation of the electrostatic potential which becomes a sum of fragment contributions rather than atomic ones. A sample of six water molecules in different crystal environments was chosen to discuss the derived values of the electric moments referred to the molecular center of mass.