“It Isn’t”

The crystallographic literature contains some famous one-liners. Gavezzotti’s memorable “No”, a response to the title of his provocative 1994 Accounts of Chemical Research paper “Can Crystal Structures be Predicted?” wins on brevity. “It isn’t” comes close. It was the answer to a question that traumatized crystallographers for well over a decade. The origin of this retort, the nature of the ensuing trauma, and the role of Professor Gautam R. Desiraju in ultimately carrying the crystallographic community past the decisive negativity of the two-word title of this note are here described.