The greenery in this year's tree is adipocyte lipid binding protein, or ALBP, a carrier of fatty acids. Xu, Bernlohr, and Banaszak at the University of Minnesota did the hard work to figure out this structure. They did it by using x-rays to analyze crystals of the protein.
Protein crystals contain water, some of which is firmly bound to the protein surface.
The water molecules attached to ALBP are the colorful decorations on the tree. Try not to give your ALBP more than it can handle this holiday season. I am all too familiar with this chain of procedure from the color plates for my book. The above-mentioned SwissPDBViewer can be found, of course, on our Other Software page. We are hoping another enterprising molecular artist will provide us with a molecular menorah, or molecular holiday art representing other cultures.