This discussion, prepared for the Protein Society's symposium honoring the 100th anniversary of Kaj Linderstr~m-Lang, shows how hydrogen exchange approaches initially conceived and implemented by Lang and his colleagues some 50 years ago are contributing to current progress in structural biology. Examples are chosen from the active protein folding field. Hydrogen exchange methods now make it possible to define the structure of protein folding intermediates in various contexts: as tenuous molten globule forms at equilibrium under destabilizing conditions, in kinetic intermediates that exist for less than one second, and as infinitesimally populated excited state forms under native conditions. More generally, similar methods now find broad application in studies of protein structure, energetics, and interactions. This article considers the rise of these capabilities from their inception at the Carlsberg Labs to their contemporary role as a significant tool of modem structural biology.Keywords: cooperativity; folding intermediates; hydrogen exchange; Linderstrom-Lang; molten globule; protein foldingThe hydrogen exchange approach was conceived by Kaj Linderstram-Lang and implemented by him and his collaborators at the Carlsberg laboratories in the early 1950s. Pauling had just discovered the a-helix and P-sheet and postulated that they were stabilized by hydrogen bonds. In those exciting days at the dawn of modem protein science, Lang realized that peptide group NH hydrogens participate in continual exchange with the hydrogens of solvent, just as in the already understood polar side chains. He set out to test Pauling's ideas by measuring the exchange behavior of these hydrogens. Lang created entirely novel methods to measure H-D exchange, and together with his colleagues at the Carlsberg Labs, he studied hydrogen exchange in a number of proteins and peptides under various solution conditions (Hvidt & LinderstrgmLang, 1954, 1955a, 1955b Krause & Linderstrom-Lang, 1955;Linderstrom-Lang, 1955a, 1955b Berger & Linderstram-Lang, 1957; Benson & Linderstmm-Lang, 1959; Hvidt et ai., 1960). In comparison with modem capabilities the information available to Lang was severely limited in resolution and even in accuracy. Remarkably, he saw past these limitations and quickly moved past