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Low-Dose Electron Microscopy of Individual Biological Macromolecules

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Book cover Electron Microscopy at Molecular Dimensions

Part of the book series: Proceedings in Life Sciences ((LIFE SCIENCES))

Abstract

Structural details at a resolution in the range 7–15 Å have now been demonstrated for a number of biological macromolecules [1, 2, 13]. The main limitation to visualizing such high-resolution details has been the damage to macromolecular fine structure caused by the large electron dosages employed in conventional electron microscopy [8]. Reduction of electron dosages, however, results in recorded images with an extremely poor signal- to-noise ratio. This ratio is further reduced by the need to sacrifice conventional staining methods if one aims at high resolution. This problem has been effectively overcome by averaging over a large number of unit cells, which is easy to achieve for the ordered two- dimensional arrays which occur in a number of biological objects.

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© 1980 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kessel, M., Frank, J., Goldfarb, W. (1980). Low-Dose Electron Microscopy of Individual Biological Macromolecules. In: Baumeister, W., Vogell, W. (eds) Electron Microscopy at Molecular Dimensions. Proceedings in Life Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67688-8_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67688-8_18

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-67690-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-67688-8

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