The advent of new neutron facilities and the improvement of existing sources and instruments world wide supply the biological community with many new opportunities in the areas of structural biology and biological physics. The present volume offers a clear description of the various neutron-scattering techniques currently being used to answer biologically relevant questions. Their utility is illustrated through examples by some of the leading researchers in the field of neutron scattering. This volume will be a reference for researchers and a step-by-step guide for young scientists entering the field and the advanced graduate student.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Krivoglaz died unexpectedly when he was preparing the English edition of his two-volume monograph on diffraction and diffuse scatter ing of X-rays and neutrons in imperfect crystals. His death was a heavy blow to all who knew him, who had worked with him and to the world science community as a whole. The application of the diffraction techniques for the study of imperfections of crystal structures was the major field of Krivoglaz' work throughout his career in science. He started working in the field in the mid-fifties and since then made fundamental contributions to the theory of real crystals. His results have largely determined the current level of knowledge in this field for more than thirty years. Until the very last days of his life, Krivoglaz continued active studies in the physics of diffraction effects in real crystals. His interest in the theory aided in the explanation of the rapidly advancing experimental studies. The milestones marking important stages of his work were the first mono graph on the theory of X-ray and neutron scattering in real crystals which was published in Russian in 1967 (a revised English edition in 1969), and the two volume monograph published in Russian in 1983-84 (this edition is the revised translation of the latter).
Also, to help students gain a unified view of diffraction, the distinction between wide-angle diffraction and small-angle scattering is postponed until late in the text."--BOOK JACKET.
The first systematic experiments in neutron scattering were carried out in the late 1940s using fission reactors built for the nuclear power programme. Crystallographers were amongst the first to exploit the new technique, but they were soon followed by condensed matter physicists and chemists. Engineers and biologists are the most recent recruits to the club of neutron users. The aim of the book is to provide a broad survey of the experimental activities of all these users. There are many specialist monographs describing particular examples of the application of neutron scattering: fifteen of such monographs have been published already in the Oxford University Press series edited by S. Lovesey and E. Mitchell. However this book will appeal to newcomers to the field of neutron scattering, who may be intimidated by the bewildering array of instruments at central facilities (such as the Institut Laue Langevin in France, the ISIS Laboratory in the UK, or the PSI Laboratory in Switzerland), and who may be uncertain as to which instrument to use.
Neutron scattering is arguably the most powerful technique available for looking inside materials and seeing what the atoms are doing. This textbook provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the many different ways neutrons are being used to investigate the behaviour of atoms and molecules in bulk matter. It is written in a pedagogical style, and includes many examples and exercises. Every year, thousands of experiments are performed at neutron scattering facilities around the world, exploring phenomena in physics, chemistry, materials science, as well as in interdisciplinary areas such as biology, materials engineering, and cultural heritage. This book fulfils a need for a modern and pedagogical treatment of the principles behind the various different neutron techniques, in order to provide scientists with the essential formal tools to design their experiments and interpret the results. The book will be of particular interest to researchers using neutrons to study the atomic-scale structure and dynamics in crystalline solids, simple liquids and molecular fluids by diffraction techniques, including small-angle scattering and reflectometry, and by spectroscopic methods, ranging from conventional techniques for inelastic and quasielastic scattering to neutron spin-echo and Compton scattering. A comprehensive treatment of magnetic neutron scattering is given, including the many and diverse applications of polarized neutrons.
With the most comprehensive and up-to-date overview of structure-based drug discovery covering both experimental and computational approaches, Structural Biology in Drug Discovery: Methods, Techniques, and Practices describes principles, methods, applications, and emerging paradigms of structural biology as a tool for more efficient drug development. Coverage includes successful examples, academic and industry insights, novel concepts, and advances in a rapidly evolving field. The combined chapters, by authors writing from the frontlines of structural biology and drug discovery, give readers a valuable reference and resource that: Presents the benefits, limitations, and potentiality of major techniques in the field such as X-ray crystallography, NMR, neutron crystallography, cryo-EM, mass spectrometry and other biophysical techniques, and computational structural biology Includes detailed chapters on druggability, allostery, complementary use of thermodynamic and kinetic information, and powerful approaches such as structural chemogenomics and fragment-based drug design Emphasizes the need for the in-depth biophysical characterization of protein targets as well as of therapeutic proteins, and for a thorough quality assessment of experimental structures Illustrates advances in the field of established therapeutic targets like kinases, serine proteinases, GPCRs, and epigenetic proteins, and of more challenging ones like protein-protein interactions and intrinsically disordered proteins
Magnetic Small-Angle Neutron Scattering provides the first extensive treatment of magnetic small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). The theoretical background required to compute magnetic SANS cross sections and correlation functions related to long-wavelength magnetization structures is laidout. The concepts are scrutinized based on the discussion of experimental neutron data. Regarding prior background knowledge, some familiarity with the basic magnetic interactions and phenomena as well as scattering theory is desired.Besides exposing the different origins of magnetic SANS, and furnishing the basics of the magnetic SANS technique in early chapters, a large part of the book is devoted to a comprehensive treatment of the continuum theory of micromagnetics, as it is relevant for the study of the elastic magneticSANS cross section. Analytical expressions for the magnetization Fourier components allow to highlight the essential features of magnetic SANS and to analyze experimental data both in reciprocal, as well as in real space. Later chapters provide an overview on the magnetic SANS of nanoparticles andso-called complex systems (e.g., ferrofluids, magnetic steels, spin glasses and amorphous magnets). It is this subfield where major progress is expected to be made in the coming years, mainly via the increased usage of numerical micromagnetic simulations (Chapter 7), which is a very promisingapproach for the understanding of the magnetic SANS from systems exhibiting nanoscale spin inhomogeneity.
This book introduces and details the key facets of Combined Analysis—an x-ray and/or neutron scattering methodology which combines structural, textural, stress, microstructural, phase, layer, or other relevant variable or property analyses in a single approach. The author starts with basic theories related to diffraction by polycrystals and some of the most common combined analysis instrumental set-ups are detailed. Powder diffraction data treatment is introduced and in particular, the Rietveld analysis is discussed. The book also addresses automatic phase indexing—a necessary step to solve a structure ab initio. Since its effect prevails on real samples where textures are often stabilized, quantitative texture analysis is also detailed. Also discussed are microstructures of powder diffraction profiles; quantitative phase analysis from the Rietveld analysis; residual stress analysis for isotropic and anisotropic materials; specular x-ray reflectivity, and the various associated models. Finally, the book introduces the combined analysis concept, showing how it is superior to the view presented when we look at only one part of the analyses. This book shows that the existence of texture in a specimen can be envisaged as a way to decouple ordinarily strongly correlated parameters, as measured for instance in powder diagrams, and to examine and detail deeper material characterizations in a single methodology.
