[ccp4bb]: Transporting xtals

["James Naismith" <naismith@st-andrews.ac.uk>]

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Dear All,
At the moment we can take unfrozen xtals on planes.
It is the dewar that has been a no no. As they cannot X-ray it, the metal is
opaque they have said no.

The trouble is one is always left to the whim of the person on the day.
Having faxed letters etc is no help. Different airports operate different
rules. We were taken into a small room in Amsterdam once. (Sounds promising,
but not when you are heading home after a disaster on the beam line).

We say glass, fragile expensive glass made from carbon, nitrogen and oxygen.

Is anyone able to get dewars onto planes at the moment?

We have not followed this up but in the aftermath of September, Fedex (+DHL)
told us they would not ship anything that could not be X-ray'd or
dismantled. The advent of anthrax by mail only increases their caution about
us shipping biological material.

Does anyone have a good contact in Fedex/DHL who we could refer our local
people to?

As the ESRF and the MRC force us to take Buzz, GO (budget airlines) etc the
problem gets worse. They have small staffs and they are not prepared to
spend a lot of time thinking about it, they say our way or no way. This is a
major uncertainty flying with them. At least with BA there is an
infrastructure where you can get hold of someone who knows about dry dewars
and protein samples.

In the wider sense, we have been looking forward to remote data collection
by post. Perhaps this may not happen for all the wrong reasons.

I think the only solution is to get high ups (Chiefs of Res Councils and
higher) to discuss it with all UK carriers and Eurostar. Plebs like us
standing in departure lounges clutching polystyrene boxes arguing with
security staff does not have the same effect as lunch at the MRC.

best
Jim

James H. Naismith                | Research mailto:naismith@st-and.ac.uk
Professor of Chemical Biology    | Teaching mailto:jhn@st-and.ac.uk
BBSRC Career Development Fellow  |
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