Credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Animation of a trifluoroiodomethane molecule (carbon shown in black, fluoride in cyan, iodine in magenta) responding to laser light. The light flash stretches the bond between the carbon and iodine atoms to a point, where the bond can either break (at right) or stay intact (at left). Since molecules are quantum systems, they actually exist in both states at once.