Atomic and molecular structure as a research area investigates the spatial arrangement, electronic configuration, and intrinsic quantum properties of atoms and molecules, and how these features determine their spectroscopic, chemical, and physical behavior. It encompasses theoretical and computational methods (e.g., ab initio quantum chemistry, density functional theory, configuration interaction) and experimental techniques (e.g., high-resolution spectroscopy, scattering, synchrotron and XFEL-based probes) to resolve electronic states, bonding patterns, potential energy surfaces, and correlation effects. This field underpins understanding of reactivity, photophysics, materials properties, and the design of novel molecules, clusters, and nanostructures with targeted electronic and structural characteristics.
New research started with a special material that behaves unusually when it's extremely cold—135 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 93 degrees Celsius), close to the most frigid temperature ever recorded in Antarctica—and ...
Nanophysics
Oct 22, 2026
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20
Water isn't always as it seems. Under extreme conditions, such as those found on other planets, it has been discovered to change its atomic structure, giving it the means to alter its appearance and other properties.
Planetary Sciences
Oct 20, 2026
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40
A research team led by distinguished professor Giuseppe Pezzotti at the Biomedical Engineering Center, Kansai Medical University (Japan), has demonstrated that differences in the molecular structures of viral RNA can be captured ...
Biotechnology
Oct 20, 2026
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10
Scientists at NPL, with the University of Surrey, University of Oxford, the Francis Crick Institute and IONTOF GmbH, have developed a technique to distinguish and map molecules that share the same chemical formula and mass ...
Biotechnology
Oct 19, 2026
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13
The size of a nucleus (nuclear charge radius) is an important physical quantity that reflects the arrangement of protons and neutrons within the nucleus. Particularly in deformed nuclei, such as those of rare-earth elements, ...
General Physics
Oct 15, 2026
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50
Bacteriophages, or viruses that infect bacteria, have a fiendishly simple purpose in life: attach to a bacterial cell, inject their DNA and then use the host's genetic machinery to reproduce. In doing so, they may have evolved ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 15, 2026
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27
The team, led by professors Simon Lewis and Tony James and Dr. Dan Pantos in the university's Department of Chemistry, has transformed azulene, a naturally occurring blue compound found in certain mushrooms and corals, into ...
Biotechnology
Oct 14, 2026
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29
A faster way of finding the best diamond-based materials for quantum computers has been developed by a researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The new approach has already ...
Condensed Matter
Oct 13, 2026
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96
"Photo 51" was a cleaner version of an earlier X-ray image, "Photo 49," that Rosalind Franklin had already used to calculate key features of DNA, challenging long-held assumptions about her role in the discovery of the double ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 12, 2026
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66
A University of Texas at Dallas scientist and her colleagues have discovered an unusual atomic pattern in a uranium-based material that gives it a rare combination of magnetic properties, a finding that could open new pathways ...
Condensed Matter
Oct 7, 2026
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