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Using an atomic-force microscope, researchers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville have produced the first sequence of molecular-scale images of the very earliest stages of crystal growth This series of images tracks the growth of a crystal from a flat aggregate of four or five molecules, through a quasi-linear arrangement of six molecules, a quasi-planar array of several rods, with 4-7 molecules in each, and the rods set in mostly in a single layer, and finally a microcrystal containing 200 molecules that is very similar to both the planar aggregate, and the large crystals. The material is apoferritin, a protein molecule with a round shape. It is a surprise that a crystal of this round protein grows in a flat, planar fashion, and these findings may revise certain aspects of theories dealing with crystal growth. (Thanks to Peter Vekilov and Siu-Tung Yau, University of Alabama at Huntsville for supplying the images and much of the caption.)
Reported by: Vekilov and Yau in Nature