This book leaves the conventional view of chemical structures far behind: it demonstrates how a wealth of valuable, but hitherto unused information can be extracted from available structural data. For example, a single structure determination does not reveal much about a reaction pathway, but a sufficiently large number of comparable structures does. Finding the 'right' question is as important as is the intelligent use of crystallographic databases.

Contributions by F.H. Allen, T.L. Blundell, I.D. Brown, H.B. Burgi, J.D. Dunitz, L. Leiserowitz and others, authoritatively discuss the structure correlation method as well as illustrative results in detail, covering such apparently unrelated subjects as * Bond strength relations in soldis
* Crystal structure prediction
* Reaction pathways of organic molecules
* Ligand/receptor interactions and enzyme mechanisms

This book will be useful to the academic and industrial reader alike. It offers both fundamental aspects and diverse applications of what will surely become a powerful branch of structural chemistry.