Researchers at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Technische Universität Dortmund have examined how the interactions between solvents and biomolecules change at high pressure. With infrared spectroscopy and computer simulations, they analysed the behaviour of the small molecule TMAO – short for trimethylamine oxide – in a pressure range from one bar to ten kilobars. These results could help us understand how organisms have adapted to life in the deep sea on the molecular level.