Research Highlights
Summer 2006
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Molecular Motion Pictures
If you want to understand how chemical reactions happen, the ability to monitor dynamic positions of atoms in a molecule is critical. There's a well-known laser technique known as coherent Raman spectroscopy that uses a scattering laser pulse to set atoms vibrating and then measures the color shift of reflected light to detect vibration patterns. [Continue Reading]
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Constant Vigilance
The fine structure constant is getting a lot of attention these days. Known as α, it is the "coupling constant," or measure of the strength of the electromagnetic force that governs how electrons, muons, and light interact. [Continue Reading]
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Gold Fever
Life can be challenging on the biophysics research frontier. Consider gold nanoparticles as a research tool, for example. Gold is ductile and malleable as well as being a good conductor of heat and electricity. [Continue Reading]
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Trapped!
A solvent is something that dissolves or disperses something else. It's the water in salt water, the alcohol in cough syrup, the lactates or ethers in inks. For many of us, solvents are the background music of the chemistry taking place all around us. [Continue Reading]
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Wanted: Gravitational Waves
When will the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) fly? Fellows Jim Faller and Peter Bender first proposed the basic concept behind LISA more than 25 years ago. [Continue Reading]
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Magic Light
"In the right light, in the right time, everything is extraordinary," according to photographer Aaron Rose. He could have just as easily been describing precision optical spectroscopy experiments recently conducted by Research Associates Tanya Zelevinsky and Tetsuya Ido, Graduate Students Martin Boyd and Andrew Ludlow, Fellow Jun Ye and collaborators from Poland's Instytut Fizyki and NIST's Atomic Physics Division. [Continue Reading]
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Spectral Shapes
The breakdown of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the stratosphere has been implicated in the destruction of Earth's protective ozone layer. Consequently, scientists have undertaken studies to better understand the structure and behavior of highly reactive, but short-lived, free radicals produced during the breakdown process. [Continue Reading]
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In Soot I Sleep
Left to their own devices, deuterium atoms would attach themselves to cold specks of soot floating in interstellar gas clouds and remain there for eternity. In fact, deuterium has a great affinity for the buckyballs, bucky onions, bucky tubes, and other forms of carbon, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, comprising soot. [Continue Reading]
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Bull's Eye!
"Chemistry is a highly improbable science," says Graduate Student Mike Deskevich, who adds "It's good for life on Earth that things are so unreactive." For instance, if chemical reactions happened easily and often, oxygen in the air would cause clothing and other flammable materials to burst into flame. [Continue Reading]