Quantum Chemistry is happening all around us all the time, but those reactions are microscopic, even subatomic and they’re happening at incredible speeds. This makes them extremely hard to observe, however now scientists have made it just a little bit easier by slowing the whole thing down.
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00:00 Quantum chemistry is happening all around us all the time, but those reactions are microscopic,
00:08 even subatomic, and they're happening at incredible speeds.
00:12 This makes them extremely hard to observe.
00:14 However, now scientists have made it just a little bit easier by slowing the whole thing
00:18 down.
00:19 Quantum chemical reactions take place over a period of time known as femtoseconds, or
00:23 quadrillions of a second.
00:25 But now scientists have been able to observe that process after trapping a charged particle
00:29 in an electric field, slowing it down by 100 billion times.
00:33 This allowed the researchers to observe the process over milliseconds instead, giving
00:37 them time to take measurements.
00:39 They say this lets them map the change in state for the electrons present, or what they
00:43 liken to observing the way an airplane wing affects the air moving around it in a wind
00:46 tunnel, with the researchers writing, quote, "Our experiment wasn't a digital approximation
00:51 of the process.
00:52 This was a direct analog observation of the quantum dynamics, unfolding at a speed we
00:56 could observe."
00:57 And they add this is the first step in better understanding not only the world around us,
01:01 but aiding us in novel inventions as well, adding, "It is by understanding these basic
01:05 processes inside and between molecules that we can open up a new world of possibilities
01:10 in material science, drug design, or solar energy harvesting."
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