The book describes phasing techniques in modern crystallography. The main text is dedicated to their simple description, and further mathematical details are contained in the appendices. Practical aspects are described for each specific method, making it a useful tool for the daily work of practising crystallographers.

New textbooks at all levels of chemistry appear with great regularity. Some fields such as basic biochemistry, organic reaction mechanisms, and chemical thermodynamics are well represented by many excellent texts, and new or revised editions are published sufficiently often to keep up with progress in research. However, some areas of chemistry, especially many of those taught at the graduate level, suffer from a real lack of up to-date textbooks. The most serious needs occur in fields that are rapidly changing. Textbooks in these subjects usually have to be written by scientists actually involved in the research that is advancing the field. It is not often easy to persuade such individuals to set time aside to help spread the knowledge they have accumulated. Our goal, in this series, is to pinpoint areas of chemistry where recent progress has outpaced what is covered in any available textbooks, and then seek out and persuade experts in these fields to produce relatively concise but instructive intro ductions to their fields. These should serve the needs of one-semester or one-quarter graduate courses in chemistry and biochemistry. In some cases, the availability of texts in active research areas should help stimulate the creation of new courses. Charles R. Cantor v Preface to the Second Edition Since the publication of the previous edition in 1994, X-ray crystallography of proteins has advanced by improvements in existing techniques and by addition of new techniques.

This book aims to explain how and why the detailed three-dimensional architecture of molecules can be determined by an analysis of the diffraction patterns obtained when X rays or neutrons are scattered by the atoms in single crystals. Part 1 deals with the nature of the crystalline state, diffraction generally, and diffraction by crystals in particular, and, briefly, the experimental procedures that are used. Part II examines the problem of converting the experimentally obtained data into a model of the atomic arrangement that scattered these beams. Part III is concerned with the techniques for refining the approximate structure to the degree warranted by the experimental data. It also describes the many types of information that can be learned by modern crystal structure analysis. There is a glossary of terms used and several appendixes to which most of the mathematical details have been relegated.

X-ray diffraction crystallography for powder samples is a well-established and widely used method. It is applied to materials characterization to reveal the atomic scale structure of various substances in a variety of states. The book deals with fundamental properties of X-rays, geometry analysis of crystals, X-ray scattering and diffraction in polycrystalline samples and its application to the determination of the crystal structure. The reciprocal lattice and integrated diffraction intensity from crystals and symmetry analysis of crystals are explained. To learn the method of X-ray diffraction crystallography well and to be able to cope with the given subject, a certain number of exercises is presented in the book to calculate specific values for typical examples. This is particularly important for beginners in X-ray diffraction crystallography. One aim of this book is to offer guidance to solving the problems of 90 typical substances. For further convenience, 100 supplementary exercises are also provided with solutions. Some essential points with basic equations are summarized in each chapter, together with some relevant physical constants and the atomic scattering factors of the elements.

X-ray crystallography is the main method used to determine the structure of biological molecules. X-ray crystallography is explained without maths and reading this text allows biologists to assess the quality and accuracy of biological structures.