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This PrimeView highlights the utility of designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) in neuroscience to study neuronal activity and signalling in cells, rodents and non-human primates.
Chemogenetics is a technique for modulating engineered proteins using small molecules. In this Primer, Kang et al. describe the key aspects of designing receptors and small molecules and their use in neuroscience applications.
In vivo NMR spectroscopy of whole, living multicellular organisms involves maintaining live organisms within an NMR spectrometer and analysing their metabolic profiles in real time. In this Primer, Lysak and colleagues describe experimental approaches for in vivo NMR, including solution-state and magic-angle spinning NMR.
Arrays of element antennas in radio interferometry enable the study of celestial objects with angular resolutions comparable with, or surpassing, optical imaging at wavelengths thousands of times shorter. In this Primer, Asaki et al. describe aperture synthesis, the basic instrumental components and data calibration.
Muography takes advantage of the high penetrating power and relativistic nature of cosmic-ray muons for imagery; positioning, navigation, timing; and secured communications. This Primer provides an overview of muography techniques, describing how they are used in Earth and planetary sciences, computer science and social science.
Using multiple liquid chromatography columns can improve separations and enable complex samples to be analysed. This Primer introduces comprehensive 2D chromatography, including instrument setups for different applications.
Two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) is an optical technique that can investigate ultrafast dynamics with femtosecond time resolution. This Primer describes the underlying physical principles behind 2DES and explains how it can be applied to study different dynamic photophysical processes.
Studying materials at high temperature and pressure provides information about phase transitions, with different X-ray probes to characterize material properties. This Primer describes how static and dynamic compression at synchrotrons and X-ray free-electron lasers can be used to reach high temperature, high pressure states and probe matter under extreme conditions.
Electrochemical surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy measurements involve the collection of greatly enhanced Raman spectra at the electrified interface of nanostructured metal surfaces. In this Primer, Brosseau et al. describe the mechanisms of electrochemical surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and important experimental details as well as data preprocessing, interpretation and analysis.
Protein film electrochemistry is used to study the redox properties of a protein adsorbed as a monolayer film on a working electrode. This Primer describes how protein film electrochemistry quantitatively investigates the thermodynamics and kinetics of processes such as ligand binding and redox catalysis.
Time-domain solutions to Maxwell’s equations can be computed using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. This Primer explores how FDTD can be used to study electromagnetic fields in complex media, including a summary of FDTD models, extensions, outputs and applications across the electromagnetic spectrum.