Tag Archive for 'Molecule'

The world’s smallest molecular motor consists of a single acetylene rotor anchored to a chiral atomic cluster provided by a palladium-gallium surface that acts as a stator. Image credit: Empa.

Researchers Develop World’s Smallest Molecular Motor

Jun 24, 2020 by News Staff

A molecular motor developed by a team of researchers from Switzerland consists of just 16 atoms. The world’s smallest molecular motor consists of a single...

Laser-cooled atom cloud viewed through microscope camera. Image credit: University of Otago.

Physicists Observe Three-Atom Collisions in Ground-Breaking Experiments

Feb 24, 2020 by News Staff

A team of physicists in New Zealand has held individual atoms of rubidium in place and observed previously unseen interactions. Laser-cooled atom cloud...

Artist’s impression of a sunset on the ultrahot Jupiter KELT-9b. Image credit: Denis Bajram.

Ultrahot Jupiter KELT-9b is So Hot that Even Atmospheric Hydrogen Molecules are ‘Torn to Shreds’

Jan 28, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have found evidence that the heat in the atmosphere of KELT-9b, the hottest known transiting...

An artist’s impression of a water-rich exoplanet with an oxygen-rich atmosphere orbiting a red dwarf star. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Friedlander-Griswold.

Astronomers Have New Way to Spot Oxygen in Atmospheres of Exoplanets

Jan 7, 2020 by News Staff

Since exoplanets are so far away, astronomers cannot look for signs of extraterrestrial life by visiting these distant worlds. Instead, they must use a...

Schematic of the team’s ultracold chemistry apparatus; ground-state KRb molecules at 500 nK are trapped by a crossed optical dipole trap: (A) absorption image of KRb molecules; the color bar indicates the optical depth of the KRb cloud; CCD - charge-coupled device; (B) the trapped molecules are surrounded by velocity-map imaging (VMI) ion optics , which consist of a series of disk-shaped electrodes; the researchers use a pulsed UV laser to photoionize the molecules; B - magnetic field; (C) example time of flight (TOF) spectrum; (D) for each species identified in the mass spectrum, the scientists also obtain a velocity-map image from which the momentum distribution can be inferred. Image credit: Hu et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aay9531.

Chemists Directly Observe Coldest Ever Chemical Reaction

Dec 2, 2019 by News Staff

When two diatomic molecules collide, they can sometimes swap partners. For instance, two potassium-rubidium (KRb) molecules can produce K2 and Rb2. The...

Moberg et al show that the smallest water clusters that can sustain ice contain only around 90 water molecules. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

Smallest Possible Particle of Water Ice Contains Only 90 Molecules

Nov 8, 2019 by News Staff

The smallest droplet of water in which ice can form is only as big as 90 water molecules, according to new research. Moberg et al show that the smallest...

Vibrational motions of N-methyl morpholine. Image credit: Brown University.

Scientists Observe Molecular Motions in Real Time

Jul 17, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by Brown University has used ultra-high-speed X-ray pulses to image subtle motions of a molecule of N-methyl morpholine. Vibrational...

Minev et al figured out how to catch and save Schrödinger’s famous cat, the symbol of quantum superposition and unpredictability. Image credit: Kat Stockton.

Physicists Find Way to ‘Catch and Save’ Schrödinger’s Cat

Jun 3, 2019 by News Staff

Schrödinger’s cat, a thought experiment envisioned by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935, is a paradox that applies the concept of superposition...

An artist’s impression of record-cold quantum gas of potassium-rubidium molecules. Image credit: Steven Burrows / JILA.

Physicists Create Coldest Quantum Gas of Molecules

Feb 27, 2019 by News Staff

Physicists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder, have produced...

Changala et al used frequency combs, or ‘rulers of light,’ to observe individual quantum energy transitions in buckminsterfullerene. Image credit: Steven Burrows / JILA.

Physicists Uncover Quantum Structure of Buckminsterfullerene

Jan 29, 2019 by News Staff

A team of physicists from the Joint Institute for Lab Astrophysics (JILA) and IMRA America Inc. has measured hundreds of individual quantum energy levels...

Silletta et al uncovered new molecular properties of water. Image credit: Arek Socha.

Researchers Discover New Molecular Properties of Water

Aug 17, 2018 by News Staff

Water has numerous anomalous properties, many of which remain poorly understood. One of its intriguing behaviors is that it exhibits the so-called temperature...

An artist’s impression of the collision of two stars, like the ones that formed CK Vulpeculae. The inset illustrates the inner structure of one red giant before the merger. A thin layer of 26Al (brown) surrounds a helium core. An extended convective envelope (not to scale), which forms the outermost layer of the star, can mix material from inside the star to the surface, but it never reaches deep enough to dredge 26Al up to the surface. Only a collision with another star can disperse 26Al. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

Radioactive Molecule Found in Stellar Merger Remnant

Aug 2, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) have made the first definitive...

In the new technique, an additional hexagonal ring of carbon atoms is fused to the zigzag edge of an existing carbon-rich molecule in two quick steps. Image credit: Igor Alabugin.

Chemists Find New Way to Synthesize ‘Olympic Ring’ Molecule

Feb 21, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers at Florida State University has unlocked a new strategy for synthesizing of olympicene (a molecule consisting of five rings that...

Yeast cells expressing proteins that carry green and red fluorescent tags to make them visible. Image credit: Brendan Ho.

Simple Cell Contains 42 Million Protein Molecules, Biologists Say

Jan 11, 2018 by News Staff

There are approximately 42 million protein molecules in a simple cell, according to University of Toronto’s Professor Grant Brown and co-authors. Yeast...

A chemically termolecular reaction is a reaction where three different molecules (e.g. H, O2, H) each participate in the breaking and forming of chemical bonds. The reaction is mediated by an ephemeral collision complex (HO2**) formed from the collision of two molecules (H, O2) which then reacts upon colliding with a third molecule (H). Image credit: Michael P. Burke / Columbia Engineering.

New Class of Chemical Reaction Discovered: ‘Chemically Termolecular’ Reactions

Aug 17, 2017 by News Staff

A duo of researchers from Columbia University and Argonne National Laboratory has discovered an entirely new class of chemical reaction, dubbed chemically...

In this illustration, an ultra-intense X-ray laser pulse from SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source knocks so many electrons out of a molecule’s iodine atom (right) that the iodine starts pulling in electrons from the rest of the molecule (lower left), like an electromagnetic version of a black hole. Many of the stolen electrons are also knocked out by the laser pulse; then the molecule explodes. Image credit: DESY / Science Communication Lab.

Researchers Create Molecular Version of Black Hole

Jun 2, 2017 by News Staff

When a team of physicists focused the full intensity of SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) Coherent X-ray Imaging instrument — the world’s...

Quasi[1]catenane. Image credit: Steemers et al, doi: 10.1038/ncomms15392.

Chemists Synthesize Pretzel-Like Molecules

May 26, 2017 by News Staff

A team of chemists at the Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, has designed and synthesized...

Electron density of a butterfly molecule. Image credit: University of Kaiserslautern.

Physicists Observe Butterfly Rydberg Molecule for First Time

Nov 7, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of physicists, led by Prof. Chris Greene from Purdue University and Prof. Herwig Ott from the University of Kaiserslautern, has observed...

U.S. scientists have created UV light-driven, single-molecule submersibles. Image credit: Loic Samuel / Rice University.

Researchers Create Light-Driven Submersible Nanomachines

Nov 17, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A team of researchers from North Carolina State University and Rice University has created UV light-driven, unimolecular ‘submarines’ that contain...

In this artist’s illustration, the sodium-potassium molecule is represented with frozen spheres of ice merged together: the smaller sphere on the left represents a sodium atom, and the larger sphere on the right is a potassium atom. Image credit: Jose-Luis Olivares / MIT.

Physicists Chill Sodium-Potassium Molecules to Near Zero

Jun 12, 2015 by News Staff

A team of physicists led by Prof Martin Zwierlein from Massachusetts Institute of Technology has cooled molecules of sodium-potassium (NaK), each consisting...

123