Chemistry: Breaking the billion-hertz barrier.

The article reports on the powerful nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy developed by the European Centre for High Field NMR (CRMN) in Lyon, France. It features the optimism of CRMN scientific director Lyndon Emsley on the potential of the machine to attract the interest of chemists and structural biologists. It compares NMR spectroscopy with X-ray crystallography. It also presents the insights by biochemist Charles Sanders on the utilization of the machine in determining the structure of a large membrane protein, and by Imperial College's Jeremy Nicholson on the medical application of NMR spectroscopy. Moreover, it also looks into the significance of the machine for metabolic profiling.