Reaction in Action: Before and After Pictures at the Atomic Level

[caption id="attachment_12843" align="alignleft" width="350" caption="Courtesy of University of California-Berkeley"] [/caption]Imagine watching a chemical reaction in real time: atoms breaking bonds with their neighbors and forming new arrangements as heat or pressure changes. That's what scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley came close to achieving in these images. Using an atomic-force microscope the researchers captured before and after images of a big hydrocarbon molecule--26 carbons with just 14 hydrogens tagging along--rearranging its shape as the heat rose from 270 degrees Celsius below zero to 90 degrees Celsius. [More]