Einstein’s working sheets and his search for a unified field theory

The European Physical Journal H - The Einstein Archives contain a considerable collection of calculations in the form of working sheets and scratch paper, documenting Einstein’s scientific...     

Click strategies for single-molecule protein fluorescence

Single-molecule methods have matured into central tools for studies in biology. Foerster resonance energy transfer (FRET) techniques, in particular, have been widely applied to study biomolecular structure and dynamics. The major bottleneck for a facile and general application of these studies arises from the need to label biological samples site-specifically with suitable fluorescent dyes. In this work, we present an optimized strategy combining click chemistry and the genetic encoding of unnatural amino acids (UAAs) to overcome this limitation for proteins. We performed a systematic study with a variety of clickable UAAs and explored their potential for high-resolution single-molecule FRET (smFRET). We determined all parameters that are essential for successful single-molecule studies, such as accessibility of the probes, expression yield of proteins, and quantitative labeling. Our multiparameter fluorescence analysis allowed us to gain new insights into the effects and photophysical properties of fluorescent dyes linked to various UAAs for smFRET measurements. This led us to determine that, from the extended tool set that we now present, genetically encoding propargyllysine has major advantages for state-of-the-art measurements compared to other UAAs. Using this optimized system, we present a biocompatible one-step dual-labeling strategy of the regulatory protein RanBP3 with full labeling position freedom. Our technique allowed us then to determine that the region encompassing two FxFG repeat sequences adopts a disordered but collapsed state. RanBP3 serves here as a prototypical protein that, due to its multiple cysteines, size, and partially disordered structure, is not readily accessible to any of the typical structure determination techniques such as smFRET, NMR, and X-ray crystallography.     

LHC: Standard Higgs and hidden Higgs

Interpretations of Higgs searches critically involve production cross sections and decay probabilities for different analysis channels. Mixing effects can reduce production rates, while invisible decays can reduce decay probabilities. Both effects may transparently be quantified in Higgs systems where a visible Higgs boson is mixed with a hidden sector Higgs boson. Recent experimental exclusion bounds can be re-interpreted in this context as a sign for non-standard Higgs properties. Should a light Higgs boson be discovered, then our analysis will quantify how closely it may coincide with the Standard Model.     

Solid State Analysis with the New Leipzig High-Energy Ion Nanoprobe

 The high-energy ion nanoprobe LIPSION at the University of Leipzig has been operational since October 1998. The ultrastable single ended 3.5 MV SINLETRON^TM accelerator supplies the H⁺ or He⁺ ion beam. A magnetic scanning system moves the focused beam across the sample. At present, a resolution of 150 nm in the low current mode and 300 nm at 5 pA could be achieved. The UHV grade experimental chamber is equipped with electron-, energy dispersive X-ray-, and particle detectors. They can be used simultaneously to analyse the sample by means of PIXE (particle induced X-ray emission), RBS (Rutherford backscattering) and in the case of thin samples STIM (scanning transmission ion microscopy). A goniometer allows the application of channeling measurements in single crystals in combination with these methods. The detection limits depend on the elements to be analysed and range from (1000⋯1) μg/g relative and (1⋯0.01) pg absolute. The analysis is nondestructive, but the sample has to be vacuum resistant. Applications of the nanoprobe in the field of semiconductor research, biomedicine, and archaeology will be described.     

Application of the multicanonical multigrid Monte Carlo method to the two-dimensional φ4: Autocorrelations and interface tension: Autocorrelations and interface tension

We discuss the recently proposed multicanonical multigrid Monte Carlo method and apply it to the scalar ⁴ on a square lattice. To investigate the peformance of the new algorithm at the field-driven first-order phase transitions between the two ordered phases we carefully analyze the autocorrelations of the Monte Carlo process. Compared with standard mlticanonical simulations a real-time improvement of about one order of magnitude is established. The interface tension between the two ordered phases is extracted from highstatistics histograms of the magnetization applying histogram reweighting techniques.     

Synthesen und Strukturen funktionell substituierter Ferrocene

Syntheses and Structures of functional substituted Ferrocenes Substituted ferrocenes have been prepared using carbonic acid chloride of ferrocene. New pathways have been found reacting the acid chloride with sodium hexamethyldisilazane and tris(trimethylsilyl)phosphane, respectively. The compounds FecC(OSiMe₃)N(SiMe₃) (Fec = C₅H₅FeC₅H₄) 1 and FecC(OSiMe₃)P(SiMe₃) 2 have been obtained and characterized by X-ray single crystal structure analysis. Experiments for the preparation of FecCP 3 are reported.