Evolution of diffraction methods for solving crystal structures

Abstract

The discovery of X-ray diffraction in 1912 by Laue and co-workers had important implications for the physics of diffraction, for the nature of X-radiation and for the structure of matter. Lawrence Bragg made important contributions to early developments in each of these areas, but the most pregnant of his innovations was in structure determination from X-ray diffraction data. He continued to make highly significant contributions to structure determination right on to the first crystal structures of proteins. Crystallography has made substantial contributions to chemistry and biology, and notably so for biological macromolecules.