Latest Molecule Stories
A group of University of Oklahoma researchers led by Dr. James P. Shaffer, Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, have discovered giant Rydberg molecules with a bond as large as a red blood cell. Determining how Rydberg molecules interact is important because Rydberg atoms are a key ingredient in atom based quantum computation schemes. Giant Rydberg molecules are formed when two Rydberg atoms interact. A Rydberg atom is an atom that has at least one electron orbiting the nucleus...
From balloons to rubber bands, things always break faster when stretched. Or do they? University of Illinois scientists studying chemical bonds now have shown this isn't always the case, and their results may have profound implications for the stability of proteins to mechanical stress and the design of new high-tech polymers."Our findings contradict the intuitive notion that molecules are like rubber bands in that when we pull on a chemical bond, it should always break faster,"...
Researchers at the University of Texas have identified an abnormality in molecules they believe is responsible for one form of Lou Gehrig's disease. The molecules, known as immature superoxide dismutase 1 or SOD1, can't interact normally with metals that provide stability and instead become destructive knots that are seen in one inherited form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the formal name of Lou Gehrig's disease, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio reports. The...
The natural world is a shining example when it comes to the self-assembly of molecules. However, it has not disclosed all of its secrets yet. Controlling the shape and structure of self-assembled systems continues to be a stumbling block for scientists. Yet such structures, in which the different molecules cooperate with each other, can have unrivalled characteristics. Self-assembly could provide the way forward for the future mass production of nanomaterials, nanodrugs and...
Shortest carbon-chlorine single bond detected until nowThe description of compounds and interactions between atoms is one of the basic objectives of chemistry. Admittedly, chemical bonding models, which describe these properties very well, already exist. However, any deviation from the normal factors may lead to improving the models further. Chemists with Professor Thomas M. Klapötke at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München have now analyzed a molecule, which has an extremely...
The discovery of a soccer-ball-shaped molecule made of 60 carbon atoms was a minor revolution in chemistry: Fullerenes are spherical, highly symmetrical molecules made of carbon atoms, and are the third form of carbon after diamond and graphite. However, the C60 "soccer ball" is not the only fullerene by far. Among its less stable relations is the C80 fullerene. There are seven different possible structural forms that have 80 carbon atoms in a symmetrical, spherical arrangement....
PITTSBURGH, April 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- High school and undergraduate students now have a ringside seat to watch atoms and molecules in super-slow motion and vivid color, as they jostle and bump each other within the cozy environs of a human cell or a beaker on a lab bench. In "Big Numbers in Small Spaces: Simulating Atoms, Molecules and Brownian Motion," students are invited to consider how many molecules are in a single drop of water, or a single cell, and then to fly in and find...
German-led scientists say they have observed for the first time a rare molecule, the existence of which has until now only been predicted by theory. The researchers from the University of Stuttgart and the University of Oklahoma told the BBC the so-called Rydberg molecule was theorized to form when one of its two atoms has an electron orbiting at an extreme distance from the atom's nucleus. First predicted by physicist Chris Greene of the University of Colorado, the existence of the Rydberg...
Scientists say the Rydberg molecule, a molecule that until now existed only in theory, has finally been created, BBC News reported.The molecule is formed through an elusive and extremely weak chemical bond between two atoms.Researchers reported in the journal Nature that the new type of bonding occurs when one of the two atoms in the molecule has an electron very far from its nucleus or center.Nobel prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi developed fundamental quantum theories about how...
Scientists in the US and Germany have discovered two of the most complex molecules ever to be found in space, and their scientific models imply that even larger molecules, such as amino acids, may also exist.Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, Cornell University in the US, and the University of Cologne in Germany have reported the discovery of ethyl formate and n-propyl cyanide in space.Using the IRAM 30 m telescope in Spain, the team discovered...
