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Hi Andrew, We've had dewars with canes opened, and mistreated in other ways resulting in cryoloops falling out of the canes... Off my head, Theres a paper from the DESY staff (in Acta Cryst I think but dont sue me if Im wrong) where they modified a cane to carry temperature monitoring equipment during shipment. This clearly showed that dewars are opened. Flip -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Leslie A. Sent: Thursday, 04 May, 2006 11:15 To: [email protected] Subject: [ccp4bb]: Dewars opened by customs ? *** For details on how to be removed from this list visit the *** *** CCP4 home page http://www.ccp4.ac.uk *** We recently sent two dewars of crystals by DHL to ESRF for data collection. On opening the dewars at the ESRF, it was obvious that the dewars (or at least one of them) had been opened during transit. The "groove" in the top to the dewar that accommodates the handle for the basket had been ignored when the top was replaced, and the top had clearly been forced back into the dewar, gouging out a new "groove". The result was a significant accumulation of ice on the pucks, which subsequently caused serious problems with the automatic sample changer, which got jammed by the ice. In addition, and most importantly, the diffraction from the crystals, which had been carefully screened prior to the trip, was so poor that no useful data could be collected. Has anyone else had a similar experience ? We used to secure the tops to the dewars with cable ties, but did not do so on this trip. Following this experience we are tempted to use a padlock, but this may provoke the use of greater force in opening the dewar. One worrying thought is that this is the first time that we have transported the crystals in pucks rather than in canes. Is it possible that the customs people are unaccustomed (excuse the pun) to seeing pucks rather than canes, and that is why they wanted to investigate ? Are customs officials the only people who would open a dewar in transit ? Is there any way that this can be avoided in the future ? Any information/thoughts are greatly welcome Matt Bowler and Andrew Leslie
