![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/cryo-em-map-of-apoferritin.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a>A Cryo-EM map of the protein apoferritin. Credit: Paul Emsley\/MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (via <\/em>nature<\/strong><\/a>)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n A game-changing technique for imaging molecules known as\u00a0cryo-electron microscopy<\/a>\u00a0has produced its sharpest pictures yet \u2014 and, for the first time, discerned individual atoms in a protein.<\/p>\n By achieving atomic resolution using cryogenic-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), researchers will be able to understand, in unprecedented detail, the workings of proteins that cannot easily be examined by other imaging techniques, such as X-ray crystallography. [Nature<\/strong><\/a>]<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Those blobs, above, are individual atoms on the surface of a protein.<\/em><\/p>\n OK, so, thinking about it, there is one more turtle to go – visualizing quarks<\/em>. An electron is a quark, for example. They’re the bits of reality that are really indivisible, as I understand it.<\/p>\n But this is – pun intended – really cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It looks like the scientists who work on seeing small things may have hit the bottom of the turtle stack (“It’s turtles all the way down, doctor!”): A game-changing technique for imaging molecules known as\u00a0cryo-electron microscopy\u00a0has produced its sharpest pictures yet \u2014 and, for the first time, discerned individual atoms \u2026 Continue reading