Atoms

A graphic depicting an atomic nucleus acting as a clock.

Scientists Reveal the World’s First Nuclear Clock

The timekeeping device is made with atomic nuclei of thorium, although it is not yet more precise than standard atomic clocks.

Physics & Chemistry Isaac Schultz Sep 4

Scientists Calculate the Pressure Inside a Proton and It’s Higher Than in a Neutron Star

The pressure inside the particles that make up every atom in the universe could be greater than the pressure inside the densest stars, according to a new measurement. Scientists at Jefferson Lab in Virginia calculated the pressure using the lab’s Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, or CEBAF, and some tricky mathematics. The measurement will mainly…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum May 16

Scientists Create Mind-Bending Rydberg Polarons, Atoms Full of Atoms

Some of the most exciting, mind-blowing physics happens when things get really, really cold—such as atoms clumping beneath the shell of a far-out electron. Imagine a bunch of people huddled under an awning, except the people are atoms, and the awning is… also an atom. This new assemblage, recently discovered by an international team of…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum Feb 27

Heaviest Element Should Completely Subvert the Rules of High School Chemistry

At the bottom right-hand corner of the periodic table sits a fantasy world. Until recently, these elusive elements’ names were just fancy translations of their numbers. They’re enormous and can only be produced in the lab. They only stick around for a few seconds at most before radioactively decaying into smaller elements. And when researchers…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum Feb 7

Look at These Bacteria Moving Like Electrons Around an Atom

A team of researchers from MIT and Cambridge University has discovered that when bacteria are made to flow through a lattice, they synchronize and swim in patterns just like electrons orbiting atoms. By carefully tuning the dimensions of the lattice work, the team were able to make millions of bacteria move around the channels in…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe Jan 6

Can Atoms Ever Touch?

There’s a very commonly held view that atoms can never touch: bring them together slowly, and you reach a point where they begin to repel. But in this video, Professor Philip Moriarty explains that really isn’t the case. Philip is a little irritated by many of the discussion online about how molecules repel, never to…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe Aug 5

Discuss: The laws that bind atoms and galaxies control your feelings too

Pour yourself a whiskey and think about this before going to sleep tonight: “What you perceive as a conscious perspective is actually a bunch of little particles banging into each other and swerving around based on the same rules that form stars, nebulae, and black holes… …That means these rules must contain within them the…

Sploid Jesus Diaz Jul 17

Listen to the Sound of Atoms Bonding

You’d be forgiven for thinking that a large tuning fork, a nail, some Blu-Tack and a guitar amp sounded more like the contents of a DIY music studio than a science lab. But they are, in fact, all the ingredients required to listen to the sound of atoms bonding. No, really! In this video, Professor…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Feb 7

This is the tiniest storage device ever built

Theoretically speaking, a single atom could be made to represent one computer bit — a technological prospect that could lead to unimaginably small storage devices. But getting atoms to behave in the desired way is easier said than done. Until now. Above: A scanning tunneling microscope showing single holmium atoms on a platinum surface. It’s…

io9 George Dvorsky Nov 19

This Amazing Image Shows How Atoms In Glass Move When You Bend It

When you bend anything, you stretch the bonds between atoms and force the little fellas to move about against their will. This image shows exactly that happening, inside a sheet of glass. Just last month, scientists announced that they’d created the thinnest ever sheet of glass which was just two atoms thick. At the time…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Oct 11

These First Photos of Atoms Bonding Were Taken Totally by Accident

What you’re looking at above is the exact moment that atoms for a covalent bond. It’s the first time this intricate single-molecule transformation has been captured in the act. It’s a breakthrough, it’s informative, in many ways it’s beautiful. And it was taken by sheer dumb luck. As reported in this week’s Science Felix Fischer…

Tech News Brian Barrett May 31

This Stop Motion Movie Is Animated Using Individual Atoms

Occasionally, researchers at IBM take a break from exploring the limits of data storage at the molecular level—and instead make stop motion films, animated entirely with individual atoms. This is the result. Created using a custom, IBM-manufactured microscope which operates at -268°C, IBM claims this is the “world’s smallest movie.” By manipulating individual atoms, the…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe May 1

Dramatic diagrams of cell biology and atomic structure belong in a beautiful textbook

Artist MRK (Markos Kay) is best known for his mesmerizing digital videos like The Flow and the aDiatomea series. But he also creates striking static images inspired by cell biology, atomic structure, and his own digital creations. What makes MRK’s images so compelling is the way they make cell biology seem less abstract. Instead of…

io9 Lauren Davis Apr 6

The World’s Tiniest Clock Is Just One Atom

We’ve gotten pretty good at clocks. The nuclear clocks that exist right now are super accurate, so what more could you ask for? Something simpler. How about a clock that’s just one, single atom? That’s exactly what researchers just figured out how to make. Holger Muller, a physicist at the University of California at Berkeley,…

Tech News Eric Limer Jan 13

This Picture Shows Individual Atomic Bonds Inside a Molecule

This isn’t the view through your childhood kaleidoscope. Nor is it an alien craft come to beam you up. In fact, it’s the world’s first atomic force microscopy image of chemical bonds inside an individual molecule. Created by IBM scientists in Zurich, Switzerland, using noncontact atomic force microscopy, the image shows the varying electron concentration…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe Sep 17

Atom Crash Produces Hottest Man-Made Temperature Ever

An atom-smasher called the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has just snagged a Guinness World Record for reaching the hottest man-made temperature ever—250,000 times hotter than the center of the sun. The face-melting temperature was achieved when gold nuclei—the part of the atom made of protons and neutrons that has a positive charge—were set zipping…

Physics & Chemistry Leslie Horn Jun 26

Brand New Colors, Random Tats, and Other Stories We Didn’t Post

So much news passes before our collective eyes every day that we couldn’t possibly cover it all. Mostly because much of it isn’t worth covering! But here are a some borderline tidbits we passed on, just in case. If You Get a Random Tattoo From an App, You Deserve a Random Tattoo From an App…

Tech News Brian Barrett Apr 25

Why are electrons doomed to remain forever separated from their beloved protons?

We all know the story. Electrons and protons are attracted to each other. That’s why a balloon rubbed on hair clings to clothes. The electrons it gained are crying out for protons and dragging the rest of the balloon along with them. But electrons and protons are right next to each other in the atom.…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Feb 24

Brian Cox explains the interconnectedness of the universe, explodes your brain

The Pauli exclusion principle is the quantum mechanical concept that no two identical particles in all the Universe may occupy the same quantum state simultaneously. What does that mean, exactly? Well, for starters, it means that the butterfly effect has nothing on the consequences of the Pauli exclusion principle. In this clip from BBC’s A…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 21

Brian Cox and Simon Pegg explain why atoms have so much empty space

If you’re a fan of lucid explanations of tricky scientific concepts, it’s hard to go wrong with theoretical physicist Brian Cox. But when you mix in physicist Jim Al-Khalili and Simon Pegg, you’ve got yourself a recipe for pedagogic gold. Also: thinly veiled sex jokes. In this clip from BBC’s A Night With the Stars,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Dec 28

Atoms

Scientists Reveal the World’s First Nuclear Clock

Scientists Calculate the Pressure Inside a Proton and It’s Higher Than in a Neutron Star

Scientists Create Mind-Bending Rydberg Polarons, Atoms Full of Atoms

Heaviest Element Should Completely Subvert the Rules of High School Chemistry

Look at These Bacteria Moving Like Electrons Around an Atom

Can Atoms Ever Touch?

Discuss: The laws that bind atoms and galaxies control your feelings too

Listen to the Sound of Atoms Bonding

This is the tiniest storage device ever built

This Amazing Image Shows How Atoms In Glass Move When You Bend It

These First Photos of Atoms Bonding Were Taken Totally by Accident

This Stop Motion Movie Is Animated Using Individual Atoms

Dramatic diagrams of cell biology and atomic structure belong in a beautiful textbook

The World’s Tiniest Clock Is Just One Atom

This Picture Shows Individual Atomic Bonds Inside a Molecule

Atom Crash Produces Hottest Man-Made Temperature Ever

Brand New Colors, Random Tats, and Other Stories We Didn’t Post

Why are electrons doomed to remain forever separated from their beloved protons?

Brian Cox explains the interconnectedness of the universe, explodes your brain

Brian Cox and Simon Pegg explain why atoms have so much empty space

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