The four-volume treatment Modern Crystallography presents an encyclopaedic exposition of problems concerning the structure of crystals, their growth and their properties. Structure of Crystals deals with crystal structures in inorganic and organic compounds, polymers, liquid crystals, biological crystals and macromolecules.

Modern Crystallography provides an encyclopedic exposition of the field in four volumes written by Russian scientists. Structures of Crystals considers the ideal and real atomic structure of crystals as well as their electronic structures, the fundamentals of chemical bonding between atoms, geometric representations in the theory of crystal structure and crystal chemistry, as well as lattice energy. The important classes of crystal structures in inorganic compounds as well as structure polymers, liquid crystals, biological crystals, and macromolecules are treated. This second edition is complemented by recent data on many types of crystal structures - fullerenes, high-temperature superconductors, minerals, liquid crystals, etc.

From the reviews: "[...] an excellent reference book. I have no doubt it will become a much-thumbed resource for students and researchers in mineralogy and crystallography." Geological Magazine

Early in this century, the newly discovered x-ray diffraction by crystals made a complete change in crystallography and in the whole science of the atomic structure of matter, thus giving a new impetus to the development of solid-state physics. Crystallographic methods, pri marily x-ray diffraction analysis, penetrated into materials sciences, mol ecular physics, and chemistry, and also into many other branches of science. Later, electron and neutron diffraction structure analyses be came important since they not only complement x-ray data, but also supply new information on the atomic and the real structure of crystals. Electron microscopy and other modern methods of investigating mat ter-optical, electronic paramagnetic, nuclear magnetic, and other res onance techniques-yield a large amount of information on the atomic, electronic, and real crystal structures. Crystal physics has also undergone vigorous development. Many re markable phenomena have been discovered in crystals and then found various practical applications. Other important factors promoting the development of crystallog raphy were the elaboration of the theory of crystal growth (which brought crystallography closer to thermodynamics and physical chem istry) and the development of the various methods of growing synthetic crystals dictated by practical needs. Man-made crystals became increas ingly important for physical investigations, and they rapidly invaded technology. The production . of synthetic crystals made a tremendous impact on the traditional branches: the mechanical treatment of mate rials, precision instrument making, and the jewelry industry.