New Results Contradict Long-Held Chemistry Dogma

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers have found that the long-held belief that only the outer, valence, electrons of an atom interact may be false. Computer simulations have shown that at pressures like those in the center of the Earth the inner, core, electrons of lithium also interact."

Comments

Re:Poor choice of words

[Adambomb]

Scientific theories only hold out until something else comes along with more facts that change our understanding

Right. That's called the scientific method.

It's kinda the whole point. Do what you can with what you have where you are, and when you find out how you're wrong you adapt.

Goes against chemistry dogma?

[MagusSlurpy]

High-pressure reactions are an almost completely unexplored aspect of chemistry; and the research that has been done shows that atoms and molecules behave much differently under high pressures. For example, a lot of research is being done now utilizing ultra-high pressure water as a replacement for organic solvents, for greener chemistry. If there's one thing we've learned from these high-pressure experiments, it's that everything acts different, so it really doesn't go against our "dogma" at all; it just goes against the "dogma" of STP reactions, which makes sense, as this was not an STP reaction. It's an incredibly cool finding; just not something that's going to turn all of our current chemical understanding upside down by violating "dogma."