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Article: Stretching conceptions of chemical bonds.
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- February 2, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 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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Stretching conceptions of chemical bonds
No one has directly observed a chemical bond, so scientists who try to envision such bonds must rely on experimental clues and their own imaginations.
The models resulting from these mental exercises provide windows onto chemical phenomena that might otherwise go unnoticed, and they help scientists predict how molecules might behave without actually making them. But the prevailing models can also hinder scientists from recognizing concepts or phenomena that don't fit into them, contends Richard P. Messmer, a physicist at General Electric's Research and Development Center in Schenectady, N.Y.
In the Jan. ...