Application

Synchrotron - a modern source of X – rays (DESY, Hamburg)

The X-radiation produced in cyclotrons possesses many properties which simply cannot be achieved using conventional sources such as X-ray tubes. Here, the beam of electron traveling with velocities close to the velocity of light, produces an intense and well collimated radiation, every time the beam is deviated from a straight-line trajectory (like the radio-waves from ionized matter circulating a black hole in quasars).

Röntgen's rays in biology - structure of a protein

Credits: DESY, Hamburg

How does DNA look like?

Encyklopedia Fizyki Współczesnej, PWN, Warszawa, 1983

DESY, Hamburg

X-ray diffractogram of DNA (its Na salt) and of a complex protein

The shape of DNA was not discovered by any super-biological microscope but by Physics methods. J.D. Watson and F.H.C. Crick in 1958 observing quite a complicated X-ray interferograms of the DNA crystals, wondered if it were a single or a double spiral. Finally, their choice was correct what awarded them with a Nobel prize in 1962.

X-rays in medicine:

From the wedding ring of Röntgen’s wife, to a micro structure of bones

This "true colu r" image of N132D from NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory shows the beautiful, complex remnant of an explosion of a massive star in the Large Magellan Cloud, a nearby galaxy about 180.000 light years from Earth. The colours represent different ranges of X-rays with red, green, and blue representing, low, medium, and higher X-ray energies respectively.

Röntgen's rays in astronomy

2. How does such a poison work? It attacks a very specific protein of the cellular membrane of the neurons, which is responsible for the transmission of electrical signals, cutting this protein into two parts. In this way, nervous signals are interrupted – a sure death, even at a minimal dose! continues…

3. What is dangerous in this story is that the Mother Nature, in her all wickedness invented only two such super poisons.
How many combinations of super poisons can be creates with 16 aminoacids in three substitutions around the Zn atom?
How many of them have been already done by Man? Fine