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Most proteins have multiple moving parts that rearrange into different conformations to execute particular functions. Such changes may be induced by molecules in the immediate environment, including water and similar solvents as well as other molecules or drugs that a protein might encounter.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Knowing the structure of a molecule is an important part of understanding it, but quite often it’s even more important to know how the molecule moves -- more specifically, the vibrational dynamics that drive and control its interactions with other molecules in chemical reactions. That’s particularly true of proteins, the enormously complex molecular structures found at the heart of important life processes such as cell signaling, ion transport, and other functions. But most of the available techniques for studying the vibrational properties of a protein run into some vexing limitations, especially when probing the lower frequencies at which the proteins actually do their job.

Blood tests are important diagnostic tools. They accurately tease-out vanishingly small concentrations of proteins and other molecules that help give a picture of overall health or signal the presence of specific diseases

For more than a century biologists made great strides in understanding the complex tapestry of life by tracing the smaller and shorter threads in its many patterns. This reductionist approach, which breaks complicated processes into their component parts to understand them better, has produced extraordinary advances. We take it for granted, for example, that DNA molecules--and not proteins--carry our genetic information, but that was a matter of huge debate and study in the early 20th century.

(PhysOrg.com) -- As part of the quest to form perfectly smooth single-molecule layers of materials for advanced energy, electronic, and medical devices, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered that the molecules in thin films remain frozen at a temperature where the bulk material is molten.