What does it mean to "solve a structure"? A quick overview of structural biology & structural models

Basically, when scientists refer to "solving a structure," they're talking about figuring out a molecule's architecture - determining (or at least modeling) how its atoms are arranged in 3D space. They can do this experimentally using techniques like x-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). And can also predict structures based on sequence and all the knowledge gained from all the experimental structures. And you can find those experimental structures in the PDB! Which you can link to from UniProt.
All in a quest to figure out the connection between form (how a protein or other molecules looks) and function (what it can do).
More on UniProt (this is your basic starting point for finding & learning about a protein - it connects you to way more resources through like a bazillion links & lets you align sequences): www.uniprot.org/  
 
I talk about it more thoroughly in this past post: blog: bit.ly/uniprot... ; KZbin: • Basics of UniProt, Pro...  
More on THE PDB!!!! This is where all the structures are deposited. www.rcsb.org/ more about the PDB and structures: blog: bit.ly/pdbstru... ; full video: • Using the PDB to inves... short video: • A short intro to cryst...  
Structural biology resources - guide to my favorite software, articles, books, lectures, websites 
 downloadable version: bit.ly/structu... ; KZbin: • Structural biology res...  
* If you need a refresher on X-ray crystallography, start here: bit.ly/xraycrys...    
* and I made a page on my blog that has links to all my structural biology posts: bit.ly/structu...    
* and here's a link to my KZbin structural biology playlist: • Structural biology    
* here are some key posts:  
* resolution: blog: bit.ly/structu... ; KZbin: • It's just a model! Und...    • Viewing maps & evaluat...  and this intro video: KZbin: • Resolution of molecula...       
* understanding crystal structures: bit.ly/crystal... & • Understanding x-ray cr...   
more about all sorts of things: #365DaysOfScience All (with topics listed) 👉 bit.ly/2OllAB0 or search blog: thebumblingbioc...