An attosecond—or 0.000000000000000001 second—is no time at all for a person. That is not so for electrons, atoms and molecules, and laser-wielding scientists are revealing the action ...

Researchers have demonstrated that by using argon plasma, metal atoms can be dispersed and guided to desired positions. This ...

By leveraging the concept of chirality, or the difference of a shape from its mirror image, EPFL scientists have engineered ...

Why did they form at that time? Astronomers know from observing distant exploding stars that the size of the universe has ...

An individual iron atom as well as one terbium atom were X-rayed, which revealed their electron arrangements.

In a groundbreaking discovery, physicists have for the first time observed individual free-range atoms interacting in free space, confirming a quantum mechanical theory proposed over a century ago ...

Simulating the real-world behavior of atoms and molecules is a key goal of quantum chemistry. It will make it easier to understand the properties of different materials, and may accelerate ...

Scientists at ETH Zurich have developed a powerful method to look deep inside single-atom catalysts—materials where every ...

Scientists have demonstrated that atoms can exhibit wave-like behavior, challenging long-held assumptions that experiments of this nature were impossible and opening new doors in quantum physics.

This article was originally published with the title “Atoms and Molecules” in SA Supplements Vol. 21 No. 525supp (January 1886), p. 8387 doi:10.1038 ...

The slightly lighter molecules containing U-235 would tend to stay near the center of the centrifuge, while the heavier molecules containing U-238 would move toward the spinning sides.

When natural uranium is put in a chain-reacting pile, its U-235 atoms start splitting and yielding energy, “fission products” and free neutrons. Some of the neutrons are needed to split more U ...