X-ray crystallography is a tool used for identifying the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, where the crystalline atoms cause a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. Measuring the angles and intensities of these diffracted beams will allow the crystallographer to produce a three-dimensional picture of the density of electrons within the crystal.
In The Lost World, X-ray crystallography is one of the subjects Richard Levine sent Arby and Kelley to Xerox papers about at libraries at Stanford University.
