Molecules in the spotlight: Snapshots reveal the eternal dance of particles
FRANKFURT. Most of us find it difficult to grasp the quantum world: According to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, it’s like observing a dance without being able to see simultaneously exactly where someone is dancing and how fast they’re moving – you always must choose to focus on one. And yet, this quantum dance is far from chaotic; the dancers follow a strict choreography. In molecules, this strange behavior has another consequence: Even if a molecule should be completely frozen at absolute zero, it never truly comes to rest. The atoms it is made of perform a constant, never-ending quiet dance driven by so-called ...