Translating the human genome into protein function: structural genomics research at Columbia
...oms. "In order to do MAD phasing, relatively heavy atoms are required. Here we use living cells to make proteins that incorporate selenomethionine, which has selenium in place of the sulfur atom in methionine," one of the amino acids that make up proteins. The switched elements in the amino acid do not app...Potent new compound from blue-green algae may help treat, elucidate nerve disorders
...hemical composition - but the arrangement of their atoms in space can make them mirror images of each other. Such sites, or stereo centers, within a biologically active molecule often form the finely crafted pockets or arms with which it latches on to enzymes, nerve-cell receptors and other molecules in th...Card tricks and mathematics: Applying the magician's trade to numerical dilemmas
... or facedown, which Diaconis equates to individual atoms that can move either forward or backward. He th...fting cards around and flipping them over, just as atoms move and change direction. His goal is to predict all the different combinations possible for the en...Stowaways from space provide link between impact, biggest extinction in Earth history
... universe. Buckyballs are molecules made of carbon atoms that link together in the shape of a soccer ball, forming a tiny cavity where molecules of such light elements as helium can nestle. Becker has developed methods to extract the molecules from rock samples, then sends the fullerenes-which usually form...... carbon, nitrogen and oxygen with lots of hydrogen atoms stuck on like Christmas ornaments. When weak acids...cording to the team's calculations, these hydrogen atoms act as if they were connected by rubber bands to the backbone atoms, constantly flying outward and s...Researchers pioneer techniques to lubricate microdevices
... sensitive touch, bumpy landscapes only a few atoms thick feel as expansive as m...s "cross-linked," since the atoms that form the molecules are linked together with strong bonds. ...Yale physicists have created a "squeezed state" of atoms using Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), a sample of rubidium atoms so cold that all of the atoms collapse into a single quantum state. The results of their study, pub...UW, PNNL think big, aim small with creation of joint nanotechnology institute
...xtremely small machines by manipulating individual atoms or molecules. Such devices are measured in the billionths of a meter - the width of about four atoms or 1,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. The field holds the promise of a world o...Krauss book explores universe from oxygen atom's perspective
...science has a real and immediate connection to the atoms in each of our bodies. His oxygen hero emerges in its present form billions of years after the earliest moments of the Big Bang, where quarks form into protons and neutrons that within minutes become the building blocks for helium and hydrogen -- the...When Shewanella meets goethite: Evidence found of recognition between animate and inanimate objects
...he addition of each electron breaks a bond between atoms on the mineral's surface and allows the goethite to shed iron. Its surface molecules convert from iron3 (Fe III) to iron2 (Fe II). The result can be iron shed into ground water. Or, if a toxic metal, such as lead or arsenic, is bound to the surface o......ber, carbon monoxide (CO) molecules and oxygen (O) atoms adsorbed from the gas phase onto a catalytic, or chemically reactive platinum surface. Once adsorbed, the carbon monoxide molecules began diffusing and reacting with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide (CO2), which desorbed. Similar reactions help elimi...Chemists spin materials to improve magnetic resonance data
...MR works by tuning into the radio waves emitted by atoms within materials, Grandinetti...rown it out. In the case of atoms and molecules, the radio information that is lost concerns the environment of t...Researchers find 'north pole' of the molecular world
...elp scientists and engineers predict the ways that atoms and molecules exchange energy, possibly enhancing solar energy devices or helping biochemists better understand proteins. The research, appearing in the June 4 issue of Physical Review Letters, shows how a tightly-focused laser employing a new kind o...The world's most powerful NMR spectrometer
... of frequencies and recording the responses of the atoms in the sample. These responses are influenced by the shape of the molecule in which the atoms reside by their proximity to other atoms in the molecule. An NMR spectrum is unique for a particul......alesce into more complicated structures. By way of atoms and molecules that assemble themselves from scratc...imensional viral compounds. The team will use the atoms that give rise to these naturally occurring molecules as templates in their attempt to develop singl...Structure shows repair protein cradling broken DNA
...with intense x-ray beams. As the x-rays bounce off atoms in the crystal, they leave a diffraction pattern, which can then be analyzed to determine the three-dimensional structure of the protein. Before they could get a full picture of the Ku-DNA complex, Goldberg and his colleagues decided to study the Ku ......nate limestone in the ocean, preventing the carbon atoms from forming the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, i...hrough geologic processes, preventing those carbon atoms from returning to the atmosphere and effectively lowering atmospheric carbon dioxide. "The Earth c...Better computer modeling provides a new look at large biomolecules
...s to make a leap from modeling molecules of 50,000 atoms to those of more than a million atoms. The techniq...tatic models portray how the charges on individual atoms of a molecule interact to produce a distribution of electric fields throughout the molecule. Such mo...Supercomputer paints electric landscape of cellular structures
...the systems they could model from less than 50,000 atoms to over an unprecedented million atoms. McCammon l...ribe the electrostatic contributions of individual atoms within a system. Previous work had been limited by the numbers of atoms that could be modeled at onc...Queens University chemist wins U.S. award for new reactions to make drugs, agrochemicals, conductors
...c compounds, whose combination of carbon and metal atoms makes them reactive in unique ways. For example, researchers at the drug company Pharmacia Corp. use a Snieckus method to prepare celecoxib (Celebrex), an arthritis painkiller less likely than others to cause serious stomach problems. The chemists re...