It is said that when physicists want to know what is going on inside a microscopic object, they just blow it up and see what happens. This reductionist approach has certainly proved useful in particle physics and in studying the structure of atoms, molecules and nuclei, using a variety of projectiles. The explosive experiments reported by Weber et al. on page 437 of this issue demonstrate that even simple molecular hydrogen is full of surprises. Their study addresses the fundamental question of what exactly happens to an atom or molecule when it absorbs sufficient energy to fragment completely. Put another way, what governs the motions of the free charged particles in a so-called Coulomb explosion?
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