Chemistry
Reaction Quenching Techniques for Capturing Fleeting Intermediates
Quick fact
Cryogenic quenching can drop a reaction's temperature by hundreds of degrees in under a millisecond, slowing molecular motion so dramatically that a transient intermediate becomes stable enough to study—akin to freezing a lightning strike in a block of ice.
Why this is interesting
Imagine trying to photograph a hummingbird's wings in mid-flap—most reactions are just as fleeting. How do chemists capture molecules that live for only milliseconds?