Contact: Bobbie Mixon
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National Science Foundation

Radicals Shake Up Molecules in a Tug o' War (1 of 2)

Caption: The illustration depicts an unexcited deuterium molecule -- a form of molecular hydrogen composed of two deuterium, or heavy hydrogen, atoms. The interactions of this molecule with a single hydrogen atom offer the first glimpse of the newly coined "Tug o' War Mechanism," which describes how the transfer of energy between colliding molecules affects the collision behavior. Stanford researchers, along with international collaborators, discovered this fundamental mechanism underlying many inelastic, or energy transferring, collisions in gases and liquids.

Credit: Stuart Greaves, University of Bristol

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