Credit: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
An X-ray diffraction pattern, produced as a pulse at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source struck a crystallized G-protein coupled receptor sample, appears on a panel display (at left) at the Coherent X-ray Imaging experimental station's control room in this 2013 photo. Many of these diffraction patterns can be combined and analyzed to yield a 3-D structural map of biological proteins. These maps can provide useful clues for the design of new drugs.