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Article: Chemistry Nobel spotlights fast reactions.(Ahmed H. Zewail wins 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research on atom movements during the birth and destruction of molecules)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- October 16, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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For more than 10 years, Ahmed H. Zewail of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena has been using extremely short laser pulses to track intimate details of chemical reactions. This week, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Zewail for his groundbreaking investigations of atom movements during the birth and destruction of molecules.
When molecules undergo chemical reactions, their atoms shift so quickly that scientists require laser pulses lasting only a few femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second) to obtain snapshots of the making and breaking of chemical bonds. Zewail and his coworkers developed laser ...