Structure determination according to "Nature"

[Hakon Hope]

Colleagues:

In the March 7, 1996 issue of Nature (p 27) appears an 
article that among other items contains the following 
description of present-day methods for structure 
determination from x-ray data:

"Such structure determinations must still be done by a 
trial-and-error methodology, in which diffraction spot 
intensities are calculated for various possible atomic 
geometries and compared with experimental intensities." 
(This is just part of the description. The article 
contains more, equally valuable information.)

I may be overly sensitive, but it seems to me that both the
journal and the authors need an explanation of how 
crystallographers go about their business. 
Any suggestions?

Hakon Hope

PS. The quoted article gives background material for a 
paper on x-ray holography (p 49, same issue).