Topic: - on October 19, 2002 at 11:23:30 AM CEST
Holograms in Motion
The newest 3-D video displays herald an interactive future for imaging.
A half-meter-long protein floats in midair, several centimeters in front of a monitor. It looks like an oversize curled ribbon from a birthday package. As three molecular biologists maneuver around the image, studying the complex molecule from different angles, it begins to fold, slowly twisting and interlocking into a tangled knot. Its shape is a clue to the function it performs in the human body: some proteins produce chemical reactions or behave like a kind of scaffolding for cells, while others help with cell division. Creation of a drug that encourages or blocks a protein’s action—say, preventing cancerous cells from dividing—could lead to more effective treatments. One of the researchers uses a stylus to prod the protein at several points. As she does so, the protein refolds itself, revealing a location that could be targeted with a drug to inhibit the protein’s function.
¬> <a href="www.technologyreview.com"target="_blank">Technology Review
... Comment
