🧵 Untitled Thread
Anonymous at Thu, 21 Nov 2024 22:40:20 UTC No. 16488429
my professor was trying to talk to me about femtosecond spectroscopy, specifically about the dynamics of molecules under reactions performing spirals in space, and various equations to model them.
is there any legitimacy to describing the dynamics of intermediate reactions that are a femtosecond long with enough detail to represent them in 3D space over time with position and orientation recorded? this seems absurd.
He specifically said "Utilizing a femtosecond laser, you can capture the molecular dynamics of compounds under various, intermediate reactions that were impossible to decipher beyond theoretical analysis. You could have enough detail to model their movement in 3D Euclidean space, such that you could trace out the orientation and translation of each atom in a compound as it changes its bond states."
How much of this is wishful thinking vs. fact? i don't study chemistry primarily so this is uncharted territory and wanted someone with more insight to clarify how far we've gotten with understanding and modelling molecular dynamics.
Anonymous at Thu, 21 Nov 2024 22:43:33 UTC No. 16488435
Stfu weeb
Anonymous at Thu, 21 Nov 2024 22:45:32 UTC No. 16488436
>>16488435
*cums on your teeth*
Anonymous at Thu, 21 Nov 2024 23:02:58 UTC No. 16488452
>>16488436
>anon defies the laws of biology
>uses it to insult
Yep sounds about right.
Anonymous at Thu, 21 Nov 2024 23:47:17 UTC No. 16488527
>>16488429
It's probably just verifying whether the theoretical models were correct. Molecular dynamics, and some tricky mechanisms, can be very difficult to model accurately, so sometimes it's just easier to measure it. Obviously you wouldn't use it for every single reaction (or maybe you would, if a benchtop device were cheap enough).
But out of curiosity, what DOES the device for this look like? Is it big? Shielded? Full of cryogenics?
Anonymous at Fri, 22 Nov 2024 02:15:47 UTC No. 16488676
>>16488527
initially they had a mode locked fiber laser, but now it's something i'm unfamiliar with. pic related is the current arrangement.
Anonymous at Fri, 22 Nov 2024 02:23:01 UTC No. 16488680
it would be neat to try and quantify chemical reactions in slow motion