ATTOPHYSICS:
X-ray Flashes Provide Peek Into Atom Core
Adrian Cho
Using ultrashort pulses of x-rays, physicists have taken a "movie" of electrons frenetically rearranging themselves deep inside an atom. The technique opens the way for a new class of experiments in which researchers should be able to trace and control changes within atoms that take place in billionths of a billionth of a second, or attoseconds.