Seeing Atomic Bonds Before and After Reactions 47
Necroloth sends this quote from an article at Wired:
"For the first time, scientists have visually captured a molecule at single-atom resolution in the act of rearranging its bonds. Until now, scientists were only able to infer molecular structures. Using atomic force microscopy (abstract), the individual atomic bonds that connect the carbon molecule's 26 carbon and 14 hydrogen atoms are clearly visible and look startlingly similar to the stick diagrams in chemistry textbooks."
Amazing To Actually "See" it (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember so many years of visualizing the molecule structures in school and learning how and why the atoms arrange themselves in molecules. The diagrams drawn and the physical models helped but always the thought of (Camelot)"It's just a model." (/Camelot) was there. Seeing the images created of these molecules by something actually measuring them was pretty damn cool and shows us just how accurate those models are. The technology which allows us to obtain these images is always pretty amazing too. To obtain these images .. "Non-contact atomic force microscopy uses a very fine, sharp point to read the electrical forces produced by molecules; as the tip is moved near a molecule’s surface, it’s deflected by different charges, producing an image of how the atoms and bonds are aligned."
So, it's in a way, similar to old record players where the stylus drags across the surface of an album and through the physical interactions with the play surface, converts the grooves and ridges to sound.. The stylus used in the article to measure the layout of the atomic forces is one atom thick at the end and is deflected by the forces which allows the generation of an image (it never physically touches anything).. All very cool stuff.