Thursday, June 02, 2005
This Really Would Be Fun
Back in school, I really enjoyed hurling sub-atomic particles at molecules and seeing what would happen. Unfortunately, I threw out my pitching arm and had to leave such work to younger people. This article brought back the good old days.
No matter how long you look at it, a water molecule is still just two hydrogens latched onto one oxygen."Seeing" atomic topography was not really possible when I was in school, and given that atoms are as much mathematical constructs as they are real things, I am still not sure we are seeing anything that resembles some sort of "reality," but these sure are fun toys to play with.
So says a new experiment, which contradicts a previous claim that water lost at least half of a hydrogen effectively becoming H1.5O when looked at with an extremely fast "camera."
