Alternatively, she says, the team could
make the images using
synchrotron radiation, superfast x-ray bursts that function something like a strobe light.
A partial list would include the Patterson function, isomorphous replacement, and anomalous scattering, which enabled the determination of organic structures; direct (i.e., purely computational) methods of phase determination, which enabled small - molecule crystallography to be almost totally automated;
synchrotron radiation and area detectors, which together
made it possible to collect data on macromolecular structures in hours instead of months; and automatic interpretation of electron density maps.