Forgive my ignorance if I am way off, but I was having a look at the crystallization of a number of different substances (e.g. proteins) through the hanging drop vapour diffusion method.
The examples given use a precipitating agent (e.g. $10~\%\ \ce{NaCl}$) at the bottom of the well and then you put the liquid protein you are looking at upside down on the top cover and the water moves from the protein into the precipitating agent, slowly crystallizing the protein.
So my question is, for simplicity would it be possible to use a divided container (e.g. petri dish) which has two compartments that share the same atmosphere to achieve the same thing, that is have a container that has a salt solution on one side, and the solution I wish to crystallize on the other?
Would this likely work?