Scientists Capture live bacteria Portraits for the first time

Source: chinatopix.com

For the first time in history, researchers were able to observe a chemical bond being born.


Using an X-ray laser at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, scientists caught their first glimpse of the transition state in which two atoms begin to form a weak bond in the first steps of transforming into a molecule.

(Photo : SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) X-ray portraits of living cyanobacteria using SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source.

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The findings could lead to X-ray exploration of the molecular machinery at work in viral infections, cell division, photosynthesis and other processes.


"This is the very core of all chemistry. It's what we consider a Holy Grail, because it controls chemical reactivity. But because so few molecules inhabit this transition state at any given moment, no one thought we'd ever be able to see it," said Professor Anders Nilsson at the SLAC/Stanford SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis and study lead author.