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Nature Physics 4, 12–13 (1 January 2008) | doi:10.1038/nphys824

Quantum molecular dynamics: The physics of explosive chemistry

Gotthard Seifert

Ab initio computer simulations of a shocked cluster of nitromethane molecules provide a glimpse of the evolution of the molecular and electronic structure of an explosive undergoing detonation. Explosives needn't necessarily be associated with death and destruction. Dynamite — the invention of which made Alfred Nobel a small fortune — was crucial to most of the large-scale construction projects at the end of the nineteenth century and for most of the twentieth century.