Watching atomically resolved structural dynamics-Blinded by the light.

ABSTRACT

In a recent issue of Nature, Barends et al.1 studied the photodissociation of carboxymyoglobin with ultrafast laser pump-probe serial femtosecond crystallography experiments. They observed significant differences in heme protein structural dynamics for biologically relevant 1-photon excitation relative to high excitation leading to the absorption of several photons per heme.