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X-ray diffraction has perhaps been one of the most critical and exigent discoveries of the 20th century. Early X-ray diffraction images for tobacco mosaic virus had been collected before World War II. By 1954, Watson had discovered from his X-ray diffraction images that the tobacco mosaic virus had a helical structure, and was able to apply this to his famous DNA structure research. It is so valued because it allows the structure of a crystalline material can be determined, based on the diffraction of x-rays due to electron density within the crystal. The mystery of the arrangement of atoms can be solved when the electrons in the crystal, which has a particular, repeating arrangement of atoms, scatter a beam of x-rays. It can be applied to study many crystalline materials, from ionic molecules to biomolecules. The technique can also be used to determine the degree of crystallinity of a sample. Due to increased data and knowledge, identification of compounds can now be performed......

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Approximate Pages: 8 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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