PSI researcher Jörg Standfuss and PhD student Ankita Singahl evaluating a nano-litre scale crystallization screening. The device shown uses ultraviolet light to help distinguish between crystals suitable for the experiment and those unsuitable. It has been developed in the group of Schertler. (Photo: PSI/M.Fischer)
Researchers reveal in detail what is happening in the retina during the process of sight. During the process of sight, light passes into the eye and triggers a whole series of chemical reactions. At the end of this process, a nerve pulse is generated that carries the visual information to the brain. At the beginning of the process, the light interacts with a protein molecule called Rhodopsin. This molecule contains the actual light sensor that is stimulated by the incoming light and changes its form, in order to trigger the rest of the process. Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute, together with colleagues from the UK and the USA, have now managed to determine the exact structure of the Rhodopsin molecule in its short-lived, excited state. From this, they have obtained a precise picture of the first step of the process of sight.
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