New computational method learns how to estimate bond energies as well as a trained synthetic chemist
‘Chemical bonds are only defined by the minds of good chemists,’ says John Parkhill, researcher at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, US. But his latest study turns this idea on its head. Parkhill’s team has designed a neural network – a sophisticated computer program that mimics the behaviour of a real-life brain – which is able to accurately determine bond energies.