Structural Biology Using Electrons and X-rays: An Introduction for Biologists

Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Michael Moody on Structural Biology Using Electrons and X-rays

To understand cell functions we need to know many macromolecular structures, which we get with sophisticated physical techniques: X-ray diffraction, electron cryo-microscopy, and NMR. Fourier transforms (FTs) are used in all three, but especially in the first two which calculate molecular images. Unfortunately, FT mathematics is not included in ordinary biology courses, adding to the difficulty of finding 3D biomolecular structures.

This book aims to make FTs (and other relevant mathematics) as comprehensible as possible, by replacing equations with intuitive methods that use diagrams. These methods are then employed for explaining the first two structural techniques--particularly electron microscopy--covering both the classical methods appropriate for symmetrical structures and the more modern "single particle" methods.

--Michael Moody