DEVELOPMENT OF SYNCHROTRON-RADIATION AS A HIGH-INTENSITY SOURCE FOR X-RAY-DIFFRACTION

Interest in the molecular mechanism of muscle contraction led to the s earch for an intense source of X-rays of 1-2 Angstrom wavelength so as to be able to examine the rich X-ray diffraction patterns given by mu scles during contraction. This led to the first X-ray diffraction expe riments using synchrotron radiation, carried out by Holmes, Rosenbaum and Witz at DESY Hamburg, in September 1970. Ln the following years, t he EMBL Outstation, to utilize synchrotron radiation for biological st ructure determination, was established at DESY and preliminary experim ents on muscle were also carried out at NINA (Daresbury. The developme nt of time-resolved techniques for muscle diffraction was first starte d in the MRC Molecular Biology Laboratory in Cambridge, using rotating -anode X-ray tubes, and was then greatly extended at the EMBL Outstati on, Hamburg, using the storage ring DORIS, This was a very successful venture, and helped to drive the whole technology development and to i nterest other potential users in the technique.