{"id":260492,"date":"2026-05-31T15:41:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T19:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/molecular-movie-technology-reveals-a-better-way-to-thwart-environmental-pollutant-newsroom\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T16:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T20:10:07","slug":"molecular-movie-technology-reveals-a-better-way-to-thwart-environmental-pollutant-newsroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/molecular-movie-technology-reveals-a-better-way-to-thwart-environmental-pollutant-newsroom\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Molecular movie\u2019 technology reveals a better way to thwart environmental pollutant | Newsroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Molecular movie\u2019 technology reveals a better way to thwart environmental pollutant | Newsroom<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/news.oregonstate.edu\/news\/%E2%80%98molecular-movie%E2%80%99-technology-reveals-better-way-thwart-environmental-pollutant<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-31 15:41:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: news.oregonstate.edu<\/a><\/p>\n

CORVALLIS, Ore. \u2013 The latest production from the \u201cmolecular movie\u201d imaging technology developed at Oregon State University is a new, inexpensive way of dealing with a common environmental pollutant.<\/p>\n

Based on short-pulse lasers, the imaging technology allows chemical and biological actions to be measured as they are occurring, one high-speed frame at a time. The measurements occur on the level of the femtosecond \u2013 one-millionth of one-billionth of a second.<\/p>\n

A femtosecond is to a second roughly as a second is to 32 million years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re able to slow down the observation of chemical processes and understand the exact sequences of biochemical reactions,\u201d said Chong Fang, professor of chemistry at OSU, who unveiled the technology in 2014. \u201cIt\u2019s a really powerful tool to study, understand and tune biological processes. Now we have extended the tool set to delineate a wide array of chemical processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a paper selected for the cover of the journal Electron, Fang and collaborators in the College of Science show how ultraviolet light and zinc, a cheap, plentiful metal, join forces in the breakdown of nitrophenols in water.<\/p>\n

Nitrophenols are long-lasting, toxic compounds that get into surface water, as well as the air, from vehicle emissions, pesticides, wildfires and industrial waste. They\u2019re problematic because they don\u2019t degrade easily on their own they act as a precursor to other pollutants such as nitrous acid (which can affect air quality); they\u2019re harmful to aquatic life; and they irritate and damage human tissue, resulting in headaches, nausea, breathing problems, and eye and skin issues.<\/p>\n

In drinking water, nitrophenols usually appear at low levels, though they trend higher in water systems near chemical plants and high-traffic roads, and in systems with older treatment facilities.<\/p>\n

Fang, postdoctoral researcher Taylor Krueger, graduate students Seth Johnson, Chieh-Hsi Kuan and research associate Cheng Chen used the molecular movie…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Molecular movie\u2019 technology reveals a better way to thwart environmental pollutant | Newsroom https:\/\/news.oregonstate.edu\/news\/%E2%80%98molecular-movie%E2%80%99-technology-reveals-better-way-thwart-environmental-pollutant Publish…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":260494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/news.oregonstate.edu\/sites\/news.oregonstate.edu\/files\/styles\/facebook_1200x\/public\/2026-05\/thumb_1.jpg?itok=AmH87T3B","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260496,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260492\/revisions\/260496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}