Key Step in Protein Synthesis Revealed

Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have trapped the ribosome, a protein-building molecular machine essential to all life, in a key transitional state that has long eluded researchers. Now, for the first time, scientists can see how the ribosome performs the precise mechanical movements needed to translate genetic code into proteins without making mistakes.

This image of the molecules involved in translation of genes into proteins shows the ribosome in transparent rendering. In the foreground are the messenger RNA (green), the elongation factor EF-G (brown), and the four sequential positions of transfer RNA as it moves from right to left during translocation (dark blue, light blue, red, and gray). The tRNA positions are like four frames of a molecular movie describing its movement through the ribosome during protein synthesis. (Credit: H. Noller)

Credit: http://news.ucsc.edu/

The Periodic Table of Elemental Discoveries | Smart News

The Periodic Table of Elemental Discoveries | Smart News

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Gustatory Tug-Of-War Key to Whether Salty Foods Taste Good

As anyone who’s ever mixed up the sugar and salt while baking knows, too much of a good thing can be inedible. What hasn’t been clear, though, is how our tongues and brains can tell when the saltiness of our food has crossed the line from yummy to yucky — or, worse, something dangerous. 

 

An illustration shows how flies taste salt via channels made up of the protein IR76b, which let sodium ions into the cells that sense taste. (Credit: Tim Phelps/Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine)

Credit: http://www.newswise.com

Unfrozen mystery: H2O reveals a new secret

Using revolutionary new techniques, a team led by Carnegie’s Malcolm Guthrie has made a striking discovery about how ice behaves under pressure, changing ideas that date back almost 50 years. Their findings could alter our understanding of how the water molecule responds to conditions found deep within planets and could have implications for energy science. Their work is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

A fragment of the crystal structure of the new ice is shown where the oxygen atoms are blue and the molecular hydrogen atoms pink. Hydrogen atoms that have been pulled off the water molecules are colored gold. These appear to locate in polyhedral voids in the oxygen lattice (one of which is shaded light grey). Previously, these voids were believed to remain even after the water molecule breaks up at enormous pressures. (Credit: Image is provided courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Credit: http://carnegiescience.edu/news/unfrozen_mystery_h2o_reveals_new_secret

Quantum Model Helps Solve Mysteries of Water

Water is one of the most common and extensively studied substances on earth. It is vital for all known forms of life but its unique behaviour has yet to be explained in terms of the properties of individual molecules. 

Water derives many of its signature features from a combination of properties at the molecular level such as high polarizability, directional hydrogen bonding sites and van der Waals forces, the attractive or repulsive forces between molecules not related to covalent or ionic bonds.

2D plot of extended structure in electronically coarse grained liquid water showing angular correlations (vertical axis) vs oxygen distance (horizontal axis). The peaks (yellow and red regions) are indicative of an extended hydrogen bonding network - a signature feature of liquid water. The inset shows the strong electronic polarization of the water molecule that occurs in the liquid where red and blue represent regions of enhanced and depleted electron density. (Credit: Image courtesy of National Physical Laboratory)

Credit: http://www.npl.co.uk

Artificial Magnetic Monopoles Discovered

A team of researchers from Cologne, Munich and Dresden have managed to create artificial magnetic monopoles. To do this, the scientists merged tiny magnetic whirls, so-called skyrmions.   

At the point of merging, the physicists were able to create a monopole, which has similar characteristics to a fundamental particle postulated by Paul Dirac in 1931. In addition to fundamental research, the monopoles may also have application potential. 

The question of whether magnetic whirls can be used in the production of computer components one day is currently being researched by a number of groups worldwide.

Depiction of the merging of two magnetic vortices, so-called skyrmions, in the magnetic structure of a material. The point at the which the vortices merge displays the properties of an emergent magnetic monopole. When the monopole moves along the direction of the vortices a skyrmion is created or destroyed. (Credit: Ch. Schütte/University of Cologne)

Credit: http://www.portal.uni-koeln.de/