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Chemistry

Infrared Spectroscopy

Quick fact

Infrared spectroscopy can easily tell a diamond from a piece of graphite, even though both are pure carbon, because their atomic bonding patterns absorb infrared light at completely different wavelengths.

Why this is interesting

You know how a fingerprint can uniquely identify a person? Molecules have their own 'fingerprints' too—and infrared spectroscopy is the technique that reads them.