Lipid Membrane Dynamics

Neutron and X-ray scattering provide the perfect microscope to study structure and dynamics in biomolecular systems such as membranes and proteins. Dynamic scattering experiments give access to the relevant length and time scales of nanometers and pico- or nanoseconds. Local environments in membranes and proteins can be probed by incoherent neutron scattering experiments. Interactions in complex biological membranes can be probed by using deuterated samples in coherent inelastic scattering experiments. The experiments allow us to link frequencies to certain internal length scales, which is a prerequisite for assigning the dynamical modes to certain molecules or functional groups. In this chapter, it is shown how membrane properties and interactions between membrane-embedded proteins can be determined from dynamical scattering experiments.