Booze in space: Is methanol reaction 'cheating' laws of physics?

[n2doc]

By Amina Khan
July 2, 2013, 9:20 a.m.
With the help of a little alcohol, scientists have discovered supposedly impossible chemical reactions in the cold reaches of space. Organic molecules like methanol are being created and destroyed in clouds of interstellar gas, thanks to a spooky process called quantum tunneling.

The findings, published in Nature Chemistry, reveal a mind-boggling phenomenon that seems to be "cheating" the classical laws of physics.

Scientists have long wondered how space chemistry occurs at such cold temperatures. That’s because when molecules come together, they need a little energy to break and form new bonds. But much of outer space is cold, lacking the energy to fuel these chemical reactions and overcome this energy barrier, study coauthor Dwayne Heard, a physical chemist at the University of Leeds in England, said in an interview.
"At these low temperatures, there's just simply not enough energy to get over the top of the barrier," Heard said.

And yet, such reactions must be taking place: Researchers have found a complex molecule called methoxy, one of the products of a reaction involving methanol. Methanol, a type of alcohol found in fuel and antifreeze, has a reputation for giving bootleg liquor its poisonous edge.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-alcohol-space-methanol-quantum-tunneling-physics-cheat-20130701,0,2366673.story

[JimDandy]

1. Very cool reason...literally

"It seems that the deep freeze, ironically, may actually be aiding the reactions in space, rather than impeding them. The cold slows down the molecules, which stay near each other for longer rather than quickly bouncing off of one another. Slowing them down widens the window of opportunity for quantum tunneling by a thousand times or even more,..."

[Wounded Bear]

2. I know the headline isn't yours.....but it sucks, really.....

Cool article, though. Something I've kind of wondered about, too. It's an interesting solution to the problem of energy in molecular reactions in places where we wouldn't normally expect them.

Thanks.

[LongTomH]

5. Yeah, I know!

I was about to add a comment about: "Talk about your cold brewing," then I saw that it was methanol, not ethanol, being produced.

Oh, well!

[tridim]

3. Which probably means that quantum tunneled chemistry will be in our toolkit soon.

I've also read that simulations of nature on quantum computers aren't actually simulations, they are REAL. Simulate a molecule on a quantum computer, and that molecule actually exists.

I bet there is a correlation.

[caraher]

6. What?

Quantum computers today are in incredibly rudimentary. We're talking about doing things like calculating the result of 3 times 5, not simulating molecules.

So I wonder what you're reading. It's almost the reverse: the molecules are real and the calculations almost exist! I guess the closest thing to what you've said is Seth Lloyd's paper "The Universe as a Quantum Computer" which contains a classic paragraph asking the question, "If the universe is a quantum computer, what is it calculating?" To which he suggests the near-tautological answer, "its own time evolution..."

[tridim]

7. I meant to say FUTURE quantum computers. I'll look for the article.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. The polymerization of formaldehyde by tunneling was studied long ago ...

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v268/n5621/abs/268612a0.html

this particular application is new, but the idea of quantum tunneling in chemical reactions is not.

http://www.princeton.edu/chemistry/macmillan/group-meetings/DEC_tunneling.pdf