Physicists Use a Single Molecule as a Tiny Particle Collider

To study the inner workings of an atom's nucleus, scientists have traditionally relied on sophisticated particle colliders to blast nuclei apart with electrons.

These colliders often require large facilities, some spanning kilometers , that can accelerate electrons to breakneck speeds in search of secrets within nuclei .

In a new study, researchers suggest a simpler, much smaller-scale alternative. They gleaned data from inside nuclei without all the hullabaloo, instead enlisting an atom's own electrons as "messengers" within a diatomic molecule.

They did this by pairing a radium atom with a fluoride atom, forming a molecule of radium monofluoride. Capitalizing on properties of the intramolecular environment, they created a kind of microscopic collider in which the radium atom's e