Finally, scientists see a proton step through water, and it took only 200 years

For more than two centuries, scientists knew that water transmits a positive charge through protons. But they haven’t seen this really happening – yet.

in sciences Paper was published on September 11, and Yale researchers stated that they had created a way to track, measure and measure the proton journey and measure it effectively through water. As for the experiment, the team used a 30-foot team-length-a tool that separates different lump elements-which took years to customize and refine them. The device was allowed to measure the speed of moving the protons through six charged water molecules.

Mark Johnson, chief study author and chemist at Yale University, said in A. Release.

Solve a clear puzzle apparently

There is an amazing long list of things in the sciences that we know – or suspiciously – to be correct, but either it has not been confirmed directly or still lacks a good explanation.

This has not prevented scientists and engineers from using these ideas that have not yet been confirmed to achieve some wonderful breakthroughs. The researchers explained that protons in water, for example, play a role in “everything from sight to storing energy to missile fuel.”

But the protons are very small and displays quantum mechanical properties, which makes them difficult to follow frustrating.

Johnson said: “They are not polite enough to stay in one place for a long time to allow us to easily monitor them,” Johnson said. “It is believed that they are running the charge with an atomic deportation mechanism, as protons jump from the molecule to the molecule.”

Beatogenic in an organic “taxi”

To monitor such operations at work, Johnson and his team used 4 aminopinsic acid, an organic molecule capable of taking an additional proton in two different locations. The author of the study, Bitten Harville, a post -doctoral student at Yale University, said in the statement that the two sites can be distinguished by the light of the light he absorbed.

For the experiment, the team tied the aminopinsic acid molecules 4 to the six water molecules. Harville explained that in this preparation, the protons can only “move from the location of the laying to the other (by installation) on a water taxi network.”

The researchers explained that the protons “connect” on the taxi, as the specialized mass of the team “analyzes every reaction ten times a second with carefully specified laser rays.

To clarify, the experiment still did not hunt the intermediate steps of the proton’s path through water. However, it defines the most striking parameters of this process so far, Johnson said.

He added: “We are able to provide criteria that would give the theorists a good specific goal for their chemical simulation, which are everywhere but have not been challenged by experimental standards.”

In fact, if this technology is able to expand beyond the dedicated Yale, it may give an additional boost to the accuracy of experiments in the basic chemistry. Looking at the way in which science is taken 200 years to reach this point, it should be more than that to lead this method at home awaiting shorter.