Arne Magneli was one of the pioneers of crystallography. Magneli established the study of transition-metal suboxides and shear-plane dislocations, paving the way for discovery of conducting titanates and pervoskites.

Beginning in the 1940s, Magneli examined a variety of transition-metal oxides to determine why the materials were lubricious and electrically conductive, when they should have been neither. These early studies focused on tungsten and molybdenum suboxides, and later work included titanium and vanadium suboxides.