Part 2/9:
For decades, biologists have toiled to unravel the intricate structures of proteins—vital biological machines that dictate numerous functions within living organisms. Historically, elucidating the shape of a single protein was a painstaking and costly endeavor, often taking years and significant financial investment. The traditional approach relied heavily on X-ray crystallography, a method famously succeeded by British biochemist John Kendrew, who took twelve years to resolve the structure of myoglobin. This intricate process involved producing a crystal of the protein sample and analyzing its diffraction pattern to infer the arrangement of its constituent atoms.