Together and Drifting Apart

Merging Together and Drifting Apart The Rise of Evolutionary Developmental Biology Technical Advances Molecular Phylogenetics Discovery of Conserved Developmental Genes... 

The simulation can now be extended to two neon atoms in water. The hydrophobic interaction predicts a partial cancellation of the rather unfavourable effect of pushing non-polar groups into water, by allowing two of them to approach each other and releasing water. One can place these two neon atoms close to each other and then start the molecular dynamics simulation. If the prediction is correct, these atoms or molecules will stay together. In practice, the neon atoms drift apart and come to rest at some distance which is not the nearest neighbour distance. At equilibrium, water has pushed in between these inert atoms and forced them apart some distance. 

Recall that interm olecular forces are the weak attractive forces that cause molecules to clump together into liquids or solids and keep them from drifting apart and becoming a gas. 

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