Discovery of the First Fractal Molecule in Nature

taylorvich writes:

https://phys.org/news/2024-04-discovery-fractal-molecule-nature.html

An international team of researchers led by groups from the Max Planck Institute in Marburg and the Philipps University in Marburg has stumbled upon the first regular molecular fractal in nature. They discovered a microbial enzyme-citrate synthase from a cyanobacterium-that spontaneously assembles into a pattern known as the Sierpinski triangle. Electron microscopy and evolutionary biochemistry studies indicate that this fractal may represent an evolutionary accident.

The study is published in Nature.

Snowflakes, fern leaves, romanesco cauliflower heads: many structures in nature have a certain regularity. Their individual parts resemble the shape of the whole structure. Such shapes, which repeat from the largest to the smallest, are called fractals. But regular fractals that match almost exactly across scales, as in the examples above, are very rare in nature.

Molecules also have a certain regularity. But if you look at them from a great distance, you can no longer see any signs of this. Then you see smooth matter whose features no longer match those of the individual molecules. The degree of fine structure we see depends on our magnification-in contrast to fractals, where self-similarity persists at all scales. In fact, regular fractals at the molecular level are completely unknown in nature.

This is somewhat surprising. After all, molecules can assemble themselves into all sorts of wonderful shapes. Scientists have extensive catalogues of self-assembled complex molecular structures. However, there has never been a regular fractal among them. It turns out that almost all regular-looking self-assemblies lead to the kind of regularity that becomes smooth on large scales.

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