Chemspy chemistry news and views

Splitting the unsplittable - Researchers from the University of Bonn have just shown how a single atom can be split into its two halves, pulled apart and put back together again. While the word "atom" literally means "indivisible," the laws of quantum mechanics allow dividing atoms - similarly to light rays - and reuniting them. The results have just been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1204285109, and www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1204285109