(Feb.6, '15) New technique could use tiny diamond defects to reveal
unprecedented detail of molecular structures.
Proteins are the building blocks of all living things, and
they exist in virtually unlimited varieties, most of whose highly complex
structures have not yet been determined. Those structures could be key to
developing new drugs or to understanding basic biological processes.
But figuring out the arrangement of atoms in these
complicated, folded molecules usually requires getting them to form crystals
large enough to be observed in detail — and for many proteins, that is either
impossible or dauntingly difficult.