NATURE AND THE NATURE RESEARCH JOURNALS PRESS RELEASE
For papers that will be published online on 01 July 2007
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Double vision – Nature Nanotechnology
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*******************************NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY***********************************
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[12] Double vision
DOI: 10/1038/nnano.2007.187
Observing the motion of individual molecules trapped inside carbon nanotubes offers a direct look at the process of vision, reports a paper online this week in Nature Nanotechnology.
The change in shape of retinal molecules in the eye triggers the biochemical pathway responsible for vision. By anchoring single retinal molecules to the football-shaped C60 fullerene molecules, Kazu Suenaga and co-workers have been able to trap them inside single-walled carbon nanotubes and image them using a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM). Using nanotubes as sample holders ensures that individual molecules are well separated and are protected from electron-beam damage during the observation.
Sequential HR-TEM images show the retinal molecules moving and changing shape inside the carbon nanotubes, and although this artificial environment is somewhat different from the normal biological setting, quite similar processes occur in the eye whilst watching these events, revealing what happens when we see.
In an accompanying News & Views article Young Kuk writes “this work is the first direct observation of the dynamic behaviour of a conjugated carbon chain, and it opens up the possibility of studying the role of retinal molecules in rhodopsins with atomic resolution”.
Author contact:
Kazu Suenaga (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan)
Tel: +81 29 861 6850 or: +81 90 2238 4175; E-mail: [email protected]
Additional contact for comment on paper:
Young Kuk (Seoul National University, South Korea)
Tel: +82 2 880 5016; Email: [email protected]
Other papers from Nature Nanotechnology to be published online at the same time and with the same embargo:
[13] Surface plasmon polariton analogue to Young's double-slit experiment
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2007.185
[14] Fatigue resistance of aligned carbon nanotube arrays under cyclic compression
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2007.186
[15] Tunable plasmonic lattices of silver nanocrystals
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2007.189
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