Some Fundamental Interactions Of Matter Found To Be Fundamentally Different Than Thought
Thursday, July 3, 2008 - 17:21
in Physics & Chemistry
When an atom collides with a molecule, traditional wisdom said the atom had to strike one end of the molecule hard to deliver energy to it. People thought a glancing blow from an atom would be useless in terms of energy transfer, but that turns out not to be the case. "We have a new understanding of how energy can be transferred in collisions at the molecular scale," said Richard Zare, of Stanford University.