Crystals are the ultimate reward for hours of work synthesising new stuff.  Chemists wait with eager anticipation for the sparkling solids that may have been deposited in their flasks.  More often that not, things turn out semicrystalline – a mixture of near perfection and amorphous murk.  What is this blog about?  Well, we wanted to try this science writing/blogging thing.  We have an unhealthy fascination with both crystalline and gooey stuff.  We like the extreme ends of that spectrum, so this is our attempt to meet in the middle, find some common ground and write about stuff that is, to us, semicrystalline.