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November 1998 issue
Cover illustration: Power spectrum of a high-resolution electron-microscopy image of NiAl <110>. The image calculation includes a realistic phonon spectrum by coupling the `molecular dynamics' and `multislice' simulation techniques. The diffuse background, satellite peaks and bands mirror the effect of thermal diffuse scattering and correlated atom vibrations. Courtesy of G. Möbus, T. Gemming and P. Gumbsch.
research papers
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The IUCr first met at Harvard in 1948. The background to that meeting and the subsequent history of the Union are described.
The symmetry concept is a research tool and technical aid in crystallography. It helps crystallography to broaden its scope of scientific enquiry and provides a means of reaching out to other fields of human endeavor.
The teaching of crystallography by texts and schools, and the views of several teachers on how to do it are presented.
An account is given of the development of X-ray crystallography from its beginnings in 1912 to its present successes in the determination of virus structures.
Smart materials function as both sensors and actuators, enabling them to imitate rudimentary forms of life. Enhanced sensitivity is obtained by operating smart materials near two or more phase transformations.
Synchrotron X-radiation (SR) is intense and tunable, and has had a profound effect on the scope of crystallography and diffraction in molecular structure studies across physics, chemistry, biochemistry, biology and medicine. Aspects of these applications of SR were discussed some 40 years ago, first demonstrated 30 years ago, and SR itself was first observed just over 50 years ago.
Electron crystallography has been developed in recent years into a reliable method for solving structures with diffraction data obtained from single microcrystals. An overview of applications is given as well as a comparison to X-ray crystallographic results from the same or similar materials.
The information content of the crystallographic structural databases is reviewed and research applications are summarized. The derivation of structural knowledge bases from the Cambridge Structural Database is described.
Crystallography in two dimensions has been developed to the point that surface and interface structures can be determined routinely. Some principles and important results are discussed along with future prospects.
In the past decades, X-ray charge-density analysis has developed into an increasingly routine tool for the study of the electronic structure of solids.
The molecular mechanism of muscle contraction has been elucidated by a combination of electron microscopy, biochemistry and protein crystallography.
An overview is given on the structural characteristics of α-, β- and γ-cyclodextrins (CDs). These cyclic oligosaccharides consisting of six, seven and eight glucoses form inclusion complexes with guest molecules small enough to fit into their central cavities and serve as good model systems for non-covalent bonding.
The various diffraction theories, geometrical theory, dynamical theory for perfect and imperfect crystals, are briefly described and compared.
This paper describes the uses of data languages and dictionaries, with particular reference to the development of the Crystallographic Information File (CIF) which is now widely used in the structural sciences.
The principles of time-resolved crystallography and their recent application to myoglobin and photoactive yellow protein on the nanosecond time scale are reviewed.
For five kinds of crystals, the reaction processes are clarified by stepwise crystal structure analysis, i.e. real-time in situ observation.
This paper reviews the development of X-ray optics using perfect crystals, mirrors and multilayers which diffract according to the dynamical theory, and their application to synchrotron-radiation sources.
Selected topics that may be of interest for both crystal-structure and crystal-growth communities are overviewed.
The mutually beneficial relationship between X-ray crystallography and chemistry is illustrated with case studies taken from the areas of chemical bonding, reactivity, catalysis and material properties.
The relationship between X-ray reflection phase and N-beam diffraction and the phase-determination method utilizing N-beam interference effects are described.
The whole procedure, including crystallization, for bovine heart cytochrome c oxidase is described as an example of crystal structural features of membrane proteins. Structure–function relationships are also discussed.
The shift of the apical O atom in CuO5 pyramids towards the CuO2 planes seems to be the common structural feature of hole-doped high-Tc superconductors and presents the average structure response to superconductivity.
Some results are described in four areas of crystallography in which neutron scattering has played a major role. The areas selected are : determination of magnetic structures, high-resolution powder difraction, crystallography at high pressure and measurement of phonon-dispersion relations.
The main applications of modern powder diffraction are reviewed. They include phase identification, quantitative analysis, pattern indexing, microstructural properties, ab initio structure determination and Rietveld structure refinement.
Crystal engineering or solid-state supramolecular synthesis is concerned with the design of crystal structures with aesthetic or functional properties. The ever-widening range of target structures necessitates a logic-driven or retrosynthetic approach towards crystal synthesis.
High-resolution ribosomal crystallography, initiated almost a decade ago, is coming to first fruition as electron-density maps at resolutions approaching the molecular borders are emerging.
