Scientists have for the first time recorded video of atoms bonding and separating, according to new research, published on January 17 in Science Advances.

The research team, from the UK and Germany, was led by Prof Ute Kaiser, head of the Electron Microscopy of Materials Science in the University of Ulm, and Prof Andrei Khlobystov of the School of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time when bond evolution, breaking and formation was recorded on film at the atomic scale,” Khlobystov said in a statement.

The research team used transmission electron microscopy, in collaboration with the SALVE Project at the University of Ulm, to record the video. Credit: University of Nottingham via Storyful