Straight lines of neutron scattering in biology: a review of basic controls in SANS and EINS

Neutron and X-ray beams in scattering experiments have similar wavelengths and explore the same length scale (~1 Å or 0.1 nm). Data collection and analysis are also broadly similar for both radiation types. There are fundamental differences, however, between the interaction of X-rays and neutrons with matter, which makes them strongly complementary for structural studies in biology. The property of neutrons to distinguish natural abundance hydrogen from its deuterium isotope and the dispersion relation that leads to the energy of ~1 Å neutrons being of the order of thermal energy are well known. They form the basis, respectively, of contrast variation on the one hand and energy-resolved scattering experiments to study macromolecular dynamics-neutron-specific scattering methods on the other. Interestingly, analysis procedures for the structural and dynamics experiments display common aspects that can be expressed as straight-line relationships. These not only act as controls of good sample preparation, but also yield model-free parameters on an absolute scale that provide fundamental information on the structure and dynamics of the system under study.