Lipid Bilayers and Membrane Dynamics: Insight into Thickness Fluctuations.
I suspect anyone reading this post knows that membranes are far from static entities, ranging from lateral diffusion of individual lipids within the bilayer to collective motions of the membrane. Here, the authors report of a thickness fluctuation, which is exactly what it sounds like -
From here.
The authors utilized both small-angle neutron scattering and neutron spin echo spectroscopy on these samples, as neutrons offer remarkable versatility in terms of probing various length and energy scales, as is presented here -
In any case, I thought it was interesting. They are - based on what I've heard - looking at lipid bilayers with proteins, but I haven't seen it come out yet in the literature. I think as people become more interested in what is really going on in complex biological systems, we're going to need to look beyond the purely molecular length and energy scales to the mesoscopic regime (however one defines it).
Happy holidays and New Year to all! Read more!
