Low resolution meets high: towards a resolution continuum from cells to atoms.

I n t r o d u c t i o n Developments in modern biology have been judged on their ability to provide a quantitative description of the complex and coordinated chemical processes that define living systems. The goal in most of these efforts has been to develop detailed models that allow structure-function relationships to be recognized and tested with molecular genetics. By far the most successful approach in this area has been the reduction of complex processes into components that have been analyzed in great detail by high-resolution structural techniques and modern biochemical and biophysical methods. A few enzymes and some macromolccular complexes have been analyzed with sufficient resolution and insight that good agreement has been achieved between experiment and predictions based on chemical principals.