Viewing REAL molecules in 3D using NMR

[Mike Chow]

Seeing REAL molecules in 3-D using NMR

Discover magazine is featuring a special issue on frontiers of science
and building a NMR-STM was one of them. With a NRM-STM we can go
beyond the current STMs (which sees only surfaces) by viewing the
entire 3-D molecular structures. This will be essential if we ever
want to see and debug the molecular structures that we make.

Basically, NMR-STM is like a STM except that on the tip is a small
magnet that comes close to the viewing molecules (to a few
nanometers). As we scan the molecule (say hemoglobin), we vary the
resonance frequency for each of the atoms we are interested (one for
C, N, O, say). Eventually, a PC collects the data and draws a 3-D
model of the structure, which then the user can rotate to different
angles.

The IBM team has made a prototype, but it is still very crude and can
only view micrometer sized objects. (They haven't created a small
enough magnetic tip yet and are substituting it with a crude, external
magnet). According to Sidle, who originated the idea, the hope is
high to develop a much better prototype soon.

--Mike