An international team of scientists, led by Professor Marius Schmidt from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has been successful in carrying out the shooting of the photosensitive biomolecules found a subject with unprecedented sublime today Virgo level of spatial and temporal allows you the ability. As a manner of researcher used a photosensitive molecule canary protein (photoactive yellow protein, PYP), which depicts the "Receiver" cornflower blue light and a part of the mechanism of photosynthetic bacteria some public entities. When the molecule PYP cornflower catches photon of light, it starts to move, taking several intermediate configurations as efficiently absorbing the photon energy. Then the molecule returns to the starting state and it depicts the final stage photocycle, which is already quite vazhnetski studied by scientists.
For the production of the shooting, scientists have synthesized tiny crystals of the protein molecules PYP, the dimensions of any liquid than 0.01 millimeter. Photocycle of these molecules was launched pulse laser cornflower, then these microcrystals were sprayed in the proletarian chamber volume laser LCLS, the most powerful X-ray laser at present Virgo, located in the National Linear Accelerator Laboratory SLAC.
Immensely bright and brief flashes of laser LCLS allowed researchers to record all the steps of changing shape of the protein molecule PYP. A picture of the molecules themselves were recovered from images ray diffraction of X-rays. The photographs were allowed to own spatial ability in 0.16 nm, for comparison, it is shown that the diameter of the tiny atom, a hydrogen atom, is equal to roughly 0.1 nanometers.
In addition to such a sublime space allows you the ability to X-ray laser could ensure ultra-fast and allows you to temporary capacity. The time intervals between two consecutive images is less than 1 picosecond (trillionth of a second), and getting so short intervals simply not possible with other methods. Belated, irrevocable after image processing, they will be consolidated in a video demonstrating the dynamics of motion of protein molecules in slow motion.
Compared with other methods of shooting X-ray lasers possess two irrefutable advantages in investigations of the dynamics of the molecules. Total takovskie lasers can be immensely large and ultrashort pulses of X-rays that allows to fix the coherent diffraction pattern to the point, as if the object of research disintegrate under the influence of radiation. In addition, Ps - is far not the limit time allows you the ability to take pictures with the help of X-ray laser pulses. In this case, the researchers used pulses with duration of 40 femtoseconds, but nothing prevents drop it to a few femtoseconds times, earning another tremendous temporary capacity allows you to while away the shooting.
"This case shows real breakthrough" - tells Professor Henry Chapman, a scientist from the focus of studying electron lasers bezvozbrannyh the institute DESY, Germany - "Our achievement has enormous significance for the further development of some public areas of science, what the scientists were able to fabricate action photography with nuclear capability allows you to. "
