Latest Molecule Stories
For two molecules on blind date, new method predicts potential for attraction or repulsion Krzysztof Szalewicz, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware, and Rafal Podeszwa of the University of Silesia Institute of Chemistry in Poland have developed and validated a more accurate method for predicting the interaction energy of large molecules, such as biomolecules used to develop new drugs. The research is reported as a communication in the April 27 issue of the...
Wave Properties of Individual Heavy Molecules Can Also Be Observed Experimentally/Video Shows Development of Interference Pattern in (Nearly) Real Time Quantum theory describes the world of atoms very precisely. Still, it defies our macroscopic conception of everyday’s world due to its many anti-intuitive predictions. The wave-particle dualism probably is the best known example and means that matter may spread and interfere like waves. Now, an international team of researchers has...
A team of international researchers have fired ultra-fast shots of light at oxygen, nitrogen and carbon monoxide molecules as part of a development aimed at mapping the astonishingly quick movements of atoms within molecules, as well as the charges that surround them. The ultra-short laser that spans only a few hundred attoseconds – an attosecond is equivalent to one quintillionth of a second – was fired in a sample of molecules and could pave the way towards imaging the movement of...
Using a new ultrafast camera, researchers have recorded the first real-time image of two atoms vibrating in a molecule. Key to the experiment, which appears in this week's issue of the journal Nature, is the researchers' use of the energy of a molecule's own electron as a kind of "flash bulb" to illuminate the molecular motion. The team used ultrafast laser pulses to knock one electron out of its natural orbit in a molecule. The electron then fell back toward the molecule scattered off...
Researchers at the universities of Granada and Barcelona have described for the first time the diffusion of liquid water through nanochannels in molecular terms; nanochannels are extremely tiny channels with a diameter of 1-100 nanometers that scientists use to study the behavior of molecules (nm. a unit of length in the metric system equal to one billionth of a meter that is used in the field of nanotechnology). This study might have an important impact on water desalinization and...
Researchers at the Nano-Science Center at the University of Copenhagen have developed a new nano-technology platform for the development of molecule-based electronic components using the wonder material graphene. At the same time, they have solved a problem that has challenged researchers from around world for ten years. Since its discovery in 2004, graphene has been called a wonder material, in part because it is 200 times stronger than steel, a good electrical conductor and is just a...
According to a new study, membranes based on the material graphene can be used to distill alcohol. The researchers wrote in the journal Science that they created the membrane from graphene oxide, which is a chemical derivative of graphene. Graphene is the thinnest known material in the universe and the strongest ever measured. it conducts electricity and heat better the any other material as well. A University of Manchester academics won the Noble Prize in Physics in 2010 by...
Graphene is one of the wonders of the science world, with the potential to create foldaway mobile phones, wallpaper-thin lighting panels and the next generation of aircraft. The new finding at the University of Manchester gives graphene's potential a most surprising dimension – graphene can also be used for distilling alcohol. In a report published in Science, a team led by Professor Sir Andre Geim shows that graphene-based membranes are impermeable to all gases and liquids...
A Rice University research team makes graphene suitable for a variety of organic chemistry applications The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), along with other funding agencies, helped a Rice University research team make graphene suitable for a variety of organic chemistry applications—especially the promise of advanced chemical sensors, nanoscale electronic circuits and metamaterials. Ever since the University of Manchester's Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov...
To better understand the fundamental behavior of molecules at surfaces, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are combining the powers of neutron scattering with chemical analysis. Scientists have a fundamental interest in how molecules behave at solid surfaces because surface interactions influence chemistry, such as in materials for catalysis, drug delivery and carbon sequestration. Understanding these interactions allows researchers to tailor...
