Use of an X-ray television for diffraction of the frog striated muscle

Abstract

THE exposure time needed to record low angle diffraction patterns from biological materials can be shortened to a large extent by using a sensitive detector instead of X-ray films. One such detector, a position sensitive proportional counter, has proved useful in studying the kinetics of the structural transitions of a lipid membrane¹ and a photo-receptive membrane². We have tried another type of fast detector, an X-ray television, to study the low-angle equatorial diffraction patterns from the frog striated muscle during contraction.