An ab initio nanoreactor simulation of the classic "Urey-Miller" experiment, exploring the possible chemical reactions on the early Earth. Visit http://youtu.be/WHQn03ZiqKY for a version with music. To learn more, please read our paper at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2099 . Created by Lee-Ping Wang, Vijay Pande and Todd Martinez for C&E News.
The ab initio nanoreactor is a first-principles molecular dynamics simulation that discovers new molecules and reaction mechanisms without the aid of chemical intuition or predefined elementary steps.
The image to the left is a pyramid visualization of chemical reactions discovered by the nanoreactor. Reactant and product molecules are displayed in the spheres with a selected molecule of interest shown at the top in red.
To read more, read the paper at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NCHEM.2099 .