Book excerpt: Determination of Organic Structures by Physical Methods, Volume 6 is a six-chapter text that describes the refinements of some established physical methods for organic structure determination. The opening chapters examine the application of mass spectroscopy to amino acid sequencing of oligopeptides and the computerized organic structure retrieval. The following chapters discuss the historical developments, principles, instrumentation, and application of flash photolysis and 29Si nuclear magnetic resonance to structure determination. A chapter considers the relevant theory from which information on internuclear distances can be obtained and the steady-state measurements, transient methods, as well as the use of Fourier transform technique. This chapter also explores the application of nuclear overhauser effect measurements to structural and stereochemical problems. The concluding chapter deals with the liquid crystal structure determination using NMR spectroscopy. This work will be of value to organic and analytical chemists and researchers.