{"id":246203,"date":"2026-10-30T03:59:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/small-molecular-twists-may-strengthen-natures-magnetic-compass"},"modified":"2026-10-30T03:59:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T08:59:39","slug":"small-molecular-twists-may-strengthen-natures-magnetic-compass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/small-molecular-twists-may-strengthen-natures-magnetic-compass","title":{"rendered":"Small molecular twists may strengthen nature\u2019s magnetic compass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A collaborative research team led by Yasuhiro Kobori at Kobe University, together with researchers from Toho University, Saitama University, Nagoya Institute of Technology and the University of Freiburg, has identified a potential molecular mechanism that could enhance magnetic compass responses in cryptochrome, a blue-light-sensitive protein implicated in magnetoreception.<\/p>\n<p>Using time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, the team identified structural rearrangements in light-induced intermediates and a contribution from chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS). Their analysis suggests that chiral rotational motion of a tryptophan residue can influence electron-spin polarization and enhance the directional dependence of downstream chemical reactions.<\/p>\n<p>Their <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1021\/acs.jpclett.6c02747\" target=\"_blank\">findings<\/a> are published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A collaborative research team led by Yasuhiro Kobori at Kobe University, together with researchers from Toho University, Saitama University, Nagoya Institute of Technology and the University of Freiburg, has identified a potential molecular mechanism that could enhance magnetic compass responses in cryptochrome, a blue-light-sensitive protein implicated in magnetoreception. Using time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}