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First-of-its-Kind Hard X-ray Free-Electron Laser Images Intact Viruses
Zothecula writes "In a paper published in the current edition of Nature, an international team of scientists describe how they obtained the world's first single-shot images of intact viruses – a technology that could ultimately lead to moving video of molecules, viruses and live microbes. Another paper by the same team describes how they were also able to successfully utilize a new shortcut for determining the 3D structures of proteins. Both advances were achieved using the world's first hard X-ray free-electron laser – the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) – which scientists hope could revolutionize the study of life."
"hard X-ray free-electron laser" - are the viruses realy intact after such a burst?
Just trying to get the title to make sense made my head hurt!
How about a link to the paper?
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How long until the TSA insists on having these?
Is that like a usb stick with wheels, or does sending the video over the ethernet also count as "moving".
The duration of its individual pulses is incredibly short – a few millionths of a billionth of a second. That’s still long enough to cause its subjects to vaporize , but that doesn’t happen until after their pictures have been snapped.
OK, this was in the second paragraph, but even so...
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pics or it didnt happen
and nobody here seems to understand the importance.
actually this will allow more, i think. The virus image is kinda proof of concept
How would this lead to moving video when the subject matter is vaporized in the process?
My old sig was REALLY stoopid.
First of all, the picture of the mimivirus, this huge honking virus, is a black dot surrounded by a psychedelic laser field herngh gnarly. But that's the best picture they can get of the largest virus known to mankind? A Grateful Dead poster?
That's the diffraction pattern. The paper has more meaningful images after "iterative phase retrieval with the Hawk software package". Hawk is open source, apparently:
Link to Hawk software abstract in J. App Cryst
also, they used some algorithm known as RAAR (Relaxed averaged alternating reflections). Heh, good name :)
Oh shit, first it's viruses, then it's japan having to save the world with giant robots.
I am a physicist-in-training (grad student), and when I first heard of "free electron lasers" I was extremely impressed, because getting electrons into a multi-keV energy state that can lase without atoms involved sounded nearly impossible. Turns out it is, because these are not actually "lasers" the sense of Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. There is no population inversion as in real lasers.
The name of this specific FEL, the "Linac Coherent Light Source", is a much more correct name. They shoot electrons through a wiggler, and as they wiggle they emit coherent photons. Coherency is they key property of laser light, but the name refers to the method of light creation more than the actual output. I don't know why the x-ray community has felt the need to use this misleading name.
Don't Bogart the fish sticks
"First-of-its-Kind Hard X-ray Free-Electron Laser Images Intact Viruses"? I get dozens of emails like this every week. They are usually caught by my spam filter, though.
Here's a video (animation) from Stanford explaining how the LCLC works.
http://lcls.slac.stanford.edu/AnimationViewLCLS.aspx
...it sounds like a fast version of using a sun-bed.
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But that's the best picture they can get of the largest virus known to mankind?
That's just the first part. Then they send it over to the CSI guys and say "enhance!"
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This proposed neutron "microscope" could image the individual atoms of the virus: http://www.ess-neutrons.org/
I know it will cause a biologist flamewar, but can we describe studying viruses as "studying life" when it's arguable whether viruses are alive or not?
I have been following the field for several decades now and this is a significant milestone in holographic imaging of single bio-molecules and more complex structures, however the same results could be achieved with the infinitely cheaper desktop plasma recombination laser. In plasma lasers, amplified spontaneous emission is achieved by population inversion between two quantum states via rapid cooling and subsequent three-body recombination overpopulation of upper state and rapid radiative depletion of lower state. More research needs to be done on rapid cooling of highly ionized atoms before plasma lasers become available and affordable for most Universities.
John Talbot, Research Associate, University of Ottawa
They are not obtaining images but diffraction patterns, which after applying sophisticated methods lets them reconstruct a configuration that is consistent with the diffraction image, to within some margin of error. This techniques tend to better for confirming proposed structures that to getting it from scratch.
I had to read the headline about six times to figure out what it meant.
Now I'm going to go have a first-of-it's-kind lunch of whatever combination of items they have in the cafeteria arranged in a particular way on the tray with just that much salt and ketchup on it...
If it can be used to generate an image, it's imaging. Many imaging methods use statistical techniques; I don't see how this is any different.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.