Shaken, not stirred: Scientists spy molecular maneuvers
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - 08:01
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- Stir this clear liquid in a glass vial and nothing happens. Shake this liquid, and free-floating sheets of protein-like structures emerge, ready to detect molecules or catalyze a reaction. This isnt the latest gadget from James Bonds arsenal -- rather, the latest research from the DOEs Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientists unveiling how slim sheets of protein-like structures self-assemble. This "shaken, not stirred" mechanism provides a way to scale up production of these two-dimensional nanosheets for a wide range of applications, such as platforms for sensing, filtration and templating growth of other nanostructures.