Atomic Disguise Makes Helium Look Like Hydrogen

Posted by timothy on Sunday January 30, 2011 @05:17AM from the no-this-is-me-in-a-nutshell dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In a feat of modern-day alchemy, atom tinkerers have fooled hydrogen atoms into accepting a helium atom as one of their own, reports New Scientist. Donald Fleming of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues managed to disguise a helium atom as a hydrogen atom by replacing one of its orbiting electrons with a muon, which is far heavier than an electron. The camouflaged atom behaves chemically like hydrogen, but has four times the mass of normal hydrogen, allowing predictions for how atomic mass affects reaction rates to be put to the test."

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The slippery slope by Anonymous Coward · 2011-01-30 06:07 · Score: 2, Funny

Rick Santorum was right. Gay marriage leads to a slippery slope... man on man, man on dog, helium on hydrogen...
We've truly lost the culture wars.
Muon on over... by Mr+Z · 2011-01-30 06:23 · Score: 4, Funny

I come in last night about half past ten,
That hydrogen wouldn't let me in.
So muon on over. Rock it on over.
Move over little atom, a mean, old atom's muon in.

--
Program Intellivision!
Re:Let's deplete helium sooner! by confused+one · 2011-01-30 06:27 · Score: 4, Funny

There's no helium shortage. There's shitloads of it over there *waves in direction of Jupiter*