This is the second of three volumes in the Springer series "Topics
in Current Chemistry" devoted to applications of synchrotron
radiation in chemistry and biology. It contains contributions
dealing with X-ray diffraction, spectroscopy, and technical
developments. The article by K. Poole et al. describes structural
and time-resolved studies on muscle fiber and represents a continuation
of the early applications of synchrotron radiation in biology,
started at DESY by K. Holmes, G. Rosenbaum, and coworkers.
The contributions by I. Glover et al. and K. Bartels et al. deal with
protein crystallography to obtain high resolution structures.
Although this method antedates synchrotron radiation laboratories,
its scope has expanded dramatically because of the new X-ray
sources and other technical innovations. S. Hasnain and D. Chandesris
et al. give examples of spectroscopic applications in biology
and chemistry. Progress in these areas depended not only advances
in experimental methods but also in improvements of data analysis
and theory. Finally, the articles by Y. Amemiya et al. and T. Masujima
illustrate novel technical developments with unexpected
potential when combined with synchrotron radiation. The articles
collected in this volume describe results obtained at synchrotron
radiation laboratories in France, Britain, Germany, Japan, and
the United States, reflecting the international nature of this
research and the countries actively engaged in it. It is hoped that
this volume serves as a guide for scientists considering applying
synchrotron radiation to their own research problems.