[Schadenfreude]

Electron filmed in motion for the first time

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MSNBC', 'S')cientists have filmed an electron in motion for the first time, using a new technique that will allow researchers to study the tiny particle's movements directly...

Extremely short flashes of light are necessary to capture an electron in motion. A technology developed within the last few years can generate short pulses of intense laser light, called attosecond pulses, to get the job done.

"It takes about 150 attoseconds for an electron to circle the nucleus of an atom. An attosecond is 10-18 seconds long, or, expressed in another way: an attosecond is related to a second as a second is related to the age of the universe," said Johan Mauritsson of Lund University in Sweden.

[SchroedingersCat]

You can either film the electron or watch the film -- but not both.

[Stratovarius]

Pin its location down completely and make the speed completely uncertain.

[emailking]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Schadenfreude', '
')
Hmmm... No mention of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Or all of that mumbo-jumbo about the "act of observing a sub-atomic event, changes the event itself". This is something I never would have thought possible.

[PenultimateManStanding]

I tried to watch the video. It was blank.

[shakespear1]

Was it the same electron for the 150 pulses ? The Cat will get them.

[Stratovarius]

When most people read "electron filmed in motion" they expect to see a little glowing orb orbiting nicely around a few protons and neutrons.

Impossible.

[Cynus]

Unfortunately the very act of watching the video changes it. For me it became an old "I Love Lucy" episode.

[Flowerr]

What next. Steell melts with kerosene and electrons get their picture taken. Didn't we learn anything in school?


By the way, did they say wether this was an S, P, D, or F orbital?

[Flowerr]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Stratovarius', 'W')hen most people read "electron filmed in motion" they expect to see a little glowing orb orbiting nicely around a few protons and neutrons.

Impossible.

[emailking]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'I') tried to watch the video. It was blank.

[Stratovarius]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Flowerr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Stratovarius', 'W')hen most people read "electron filmed in motion" they expect to see a little glowing orb orbiting nicely around a few protons and neutrons.

Impossible.

[Daculling]

Well I see it in multiple places at once and no motion so this changes nothing for me.