Scientific Highlights

2nd July 2017
Finite element simulations show that a combination of convection and thermodiffusion enriches formamide in the pore (contour plot). The graph illustrates the accumulation normalized to the reservoir concentration ω_0 over time for different ω_0. The accumulation saturates around a formamide concentration of 85 wt%. The time necessary to reach the plateau τ_plateau depends on the reservoir concentration ω_0 (inset). Copyright: Forschungszentrum Jülich

Origin of Life: Accumulation of Formamide in Hydrothermal Pores to Form Prebiotic Nucleobases

One of the central questions of humankind is: which chemical and physical conditions are necessary to make life possible? In this “origin-of-life” context, formamide plays an important role, because it has been demonstrated... (Read more)
2nd July 2017
Large, temporary clusters lead to a dramatic slowdown in diffusion for patchy proteins. Copyright: Universität Lund

Dramatic Influence of Patchy Attractions on Short-Time Protein Diffusion under Crowded Conditions

Protein diffusion is pivotal for the functional properties of biological systems. Here we use quasielastic neutron scattering experiments combined with computer simulations to obtain quantitative information about the short-time diffusion of proteins in... (Read more)