<title>Studies of structures and phase transitions of Langmuir monolayers using synchrotron radiation</title>

It has been known for decades that lipid molecules can be spread on the surface of water to form monolayers, and that these monolayers undergo phase transitions as a function of pressure and temperature. However, it is only in the past few years, and only because of the availability of synchrotron radiation, that the structures of a number of Langmuir monolayer phases have been determined. In most cases these results contradict the assumptions commonly made earlier.