Tag Archives: atomic movie

The best atomic movie ever from the University of Toronto (Canada)

To date, the real-time video, recorded by scientists from the University of Toronto, of atoms undergoing a transformation to become a new structure offers the best resolution yet, according to an Apr. 18, 2013 news item on Azonano,

“It’s the first look at how chemistry and biology involve just a few key motions for even the most complex systems,” says U of T [University of Toronto] chemistry and physics professor R. J. Dwayne Miller, principal investigator of the study. “There is an enormous reduction in complexity at the defining point, the transition state region, which makes chemical processes transferrable from one type of molecule to another. This is how new drugs or materials are made.”

Miller, who holds a joint appointment as director of the Max Planck Research Group for Structural Dynamics at the Centre for Free Electron Laser Science, conducted the research with colleagues from institutions in Germany and Japan. He says nature uses this reduction principle at transition states to breathe life into otherwise inanimate matter.

“The first atomic movies were very grainy, much like the first motion pictures,” says Miller. “The new movies are so clear one could dare say they are becoming beautiful to behold, especially when you remember you are looking at atoms moving on the fly. We’ve captured them at an incredibly fast rate of less than 1 millionth of a millionth of a second per frame.”

In the Apr. 17, 2013 University of Toronto news release, which originated the news item, Miller provides a description of the complexity,

To help illuminate what’s going on here,  Miller explains that with two atoms there is only one possible coordinate or dimension for following the chemical pathway. With three atoms, two dimensions are now needed. However, with a complex molecule, it would be expected that hundreds or even thousands of dimensions would be required to map all possible trajectories of the atoms.

“In this case, chemistry would be a completely new problem for every molecule,” says Miller. “But somehow there is an enormous reduction in dimensions to just a few motions, and we are now able to see exactly how this works at the atomic level of detail.”

Mapping molecular motions -- the "magic" of Chemistry revealed. Despite the enormous number of possible arrangements of atoms during a structural transition, such as occurs with changes in charge distribution or chemical processes, the interconversion from one structure to another reduces to a few key types of motions.  This enormous reduction in dimensionality is what makes chemical concepts transferable from one molecule to another and has enabled chemists to synthesize nearly any molecule desired, for new drugs to infusing new material properties. This movie gives a direct atomic level view of this enormous reduction in complexity.  The specific trajectories along 3 different coordinates, as highlighted in the movie, are shown as projections (right view) on a cube.  The key atomic motions can be mapped on to 3 highly simplified coordinates -- the magic of chemistry in its full atomic splendour. Credit: Lai Chung Liu, University of Toronto

Mapping molecular motions — the “magic” of Chemistry revealed. Despite the enormous number of possible arrangements of atoms during a structural transition, such as occurs with changes in charge distribution or chemical processes, the interconversion from one structure to another reduces to a few key types of motions. This enormous reduction in dimensionality is what makes chemical concepts transferable from one molecule to another and has enabled chemists to synthesize nearly any molecule desired, for new drugs to infusing new material properties. This movie gives a direct atomic level view of this enormous reduction in complexity. The specific trajectories along 3 different coordinates, as highlighted in the movie, are shown as projections (right view) on a cube. The key atomic motions can be mapped on to 3 highly simplified coordinates — the magic of chemistry in its full atomic splendour.
Credit: Lai Chung Liu, University of Toronto

Unfortunately, I was not able to successfully bring over the movie but you can try accessing it from here.