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.
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, mitochondria in our cells churn out energy from the food we eat, which keeps our bodies functioning. Much of this work happens along cristae—deep pockets in the mitochondria's inner ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 6, 2026
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A cell's ability to repair its damaged DNA is one of the most fundamental processes in biology, helping protect us from diseases like cancer. Over the years, researchers have unraveled many of the mechanisms cells use to ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 24, 2026
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Honeycomb-shaped structures are familiar from beehives. Researchers have now designed molecules that self-assemble into a similar pattern on a scale far too small to see with the naked eye. These molecules are peptides: short ...
Bio & Medicine
Sep 24, 2026
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Take a second and turn it into trillions of moments. Measure each one. That's how precisely an atomic clock at Singapore's Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) keeps time—and with record-setting accuracy, according to results ...
General Physics
Sep 23, 2026
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Scientists at Warwick have shown that a material treated for 40 years as a uniform, textbook superconductor is in fact a patchwork of different crystal structures throughout its bulk, using an advanced 3D imaging technique ...
Superconductivity
Sep 17, 2026
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Researchers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory have teamed up to get a fresh look at the complex makeup of meteorites and glimpse into our solar system's past.
Astrobiology
Sep 17, 2026
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Rydberg atoms are considered promising building blocks for quantum computers and their precursors, quantum simulators. Researchers at the 5th Institute of Physics of the University of Stuttgart have achieved record values ...
Quantum Physics
Sep 16, 2026
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Proteins are high-performance molecular machines that carry out nearly every biochemical function inside living cells. To understand how they achieve this, scientists often examine their detailed atomic structure, which holds ...
Biotechnology
Sep 15, 2026
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For decades, scientists have understood proteins primarily through two defining features: their amino acid sequence and their three-dimensional structure. This framework has driven major advances in biology, biotechnology ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Sep 10, 2026
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60
Atoms in a material are rarely still. They jiggle back and forth in collective lattice vibrations known as phonons. Their motion can also carry a rotational element: In 2023, scientists at PSI experimentally proved the existence ...
Condensed Matter
Sep 7, 2026
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