This week in Science, Yale researchers present “roadmaps” showing that shared protons, a common loose link between two biological molecules, simply vibrate between the molecules as a local oscillator, rather than intimately entangling with the molecular vibrations of the attached molecules.
Led by Professor Mark A. Johnson in the Department of Chemistry, the new data reveal distinct, isolated vibrational patterns, solely associated with the bridging proton, that change dramatically according to the chemical properties of the tethered molecules.
Two oxygen atoms on different molecules are connected by their mutual attraction to an extra proton, shown as a fuzzy ball between them.