{"id":229068,"date":"2026-01-15T01:23:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T07:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/quantum-simulator-reveals-how-vibrations-steer-energy-flow-in-molecules"},"modified":"2026-01-15T01:23:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T07:23:53","slug":"quantum-simulator-reveals-how-vibrations-steer-energy-flow-in-molecules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/quantum-simulator-reveals-how-vibrations-steer-energy-flow-in-molecules","title":{"rendered":"Quantum simulator reveals how vibrations steer energy flow in molecules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/quantum-simulator-reveals-how-vibrations-steer-energy-flow-in-molecules2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Researchers led by Rice University\u2019s Guido Pagano used a specialized quantum device to simulate a vibrating molecule and track how energy moves within it. The work, published Dec. 5 in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-025-67116-6\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Nature Communications<\/i><\/a>, could improve understanding of basic mechanisms behind phenomena such as photosynthesis and solar energy conversion.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers modeled a simple two-site molecule with one part supplying energy and the other receiving it, both shaped by vibrations and their environment. By tuning the system, they could directly observe energy moving from donor to acceptor and study how vibrations and energy loss influence that transfer, providing a controlled way to test theories of energy flow in complex materials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can now observe how energy moves in a synthetic molecule while independently adjusting each variable to see what truly matters,\u201d said Pagano, assistant professor of physics and astronomy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers led by Rice University\u2019s Guido Pagano used a specialized quantum device to simulate a vibrating molecule and track how energy moves within it. The work, published Dec. 5 in Nature Communications, could improve understanding of basic mechanisms behind phenomena such as photosynthesis and solar energy conversion. The researchers modeled a simple two-site molecule with [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1617,1633,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quantum-physics","category-solar-power","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}