PULLMAN, Wash., Aug. 6 -- Washington State University issued the following news release:
Most of us think of Einstein's theory of special relativity in terms of vast distances and massive objects - black holes, space travel, planetary motion.
But for the first time, a team of researchers at Washington State and Brown universities has observed how relativity alters chemical bonds involving heavy atoms, where electrons move at nearly light speed.
Using photoelectron spectroscopy, scientists at Brown captured experimental evidence of the effect in a molecule made of carbon and bismuth, one of the heaviest elements on the periodic table. WSU chemist Kirk Peterson confirmed the finding with advanced computational modeling: relativity had fund...