News
Ultrafast lasers take 'snapshots' as atoms collide Using laser pulses that last just 70 femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second), physicists have observed in greater detail than ever before what happens when atoms collide. The experiments at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder, confirm a decades-old theory of how atoms--like tennis balls--briefly lose form and energy when they hit something. The results will help scientists study other atomic-scale processes and better understand the laws of physics.
|