life, the movie

Rolf hagaud Nelson glennoble of the French Alps has become the birthplace of a new film industry.
The producer is a biologist, the stars are tiny crystals of protein, and the stage lights are not from floodlights, but from X-rays.
The final product will never shine at the box office, but its importance may eclipse Hollywood\'s biggest blockbuster.
This is because Grenoble filmmakers want to reveal how protein molecules twist and turn as they cross lightning --
The rapid chemical reaction behind the basic process of biology.
Their job is by X-
Beam of European synchronous radiation device (ESRF)
It is the most dynamic, passionate and brilliant in the world.
Researchers compare them to searchlights, the traditional X-
The light is brighter than the candle.
In a huge doughnut.
Housed in a shape building of a synchronous accelerator, in a storage ring at a circumference of 844 m, a high-energy electron beam runs at a speed close to the speed of light, shielded by a thick concrete wall.
Extending from the ring is 29 long cabins covered with thick lead plates.
On these \"beam lines\", scientists have harvested X.
Light generated by electrons passing through carefully controlled magnetic fields (
March 14, 1992, New Scientist, New Light Shining in Europe.
ESRF opened in last September and is funded by £ 0. 4 billion from 12 European countries.
Physics and chemistry are the most common science for research with synchronous accelerators, but X-
For more than half a century, light has been used to study the shape and atomic structure of proteins.
When the protein crystal is X-