Water - it's not all it's cracked up to be

摘要

Water, water everywhere - but at least one protein can function without the wet stuff. Martin Weik of the Institute for Structural Biology in Grenoble, France, and colleagues swapped the coating of water on myoglobin proteins - which normally carry oxygen to muscle - with a synthetic polymer that acts as a surfactant, effectively turning the proteins into a viscous liquid with a treacly consistency.