By Joseph Howlett
Publication Date: 2026-03-05 19:00:00
IBM scientists unveil the first ever “half-Möbius” molecule, with the help of quantum computing
A team at IBM Research has assembled a strange new ring-shaped molecule that bends around like a more complicated Möbius strip
The newly discovered half-Möbius molecule. The cloud of electrons twists about the ring of atoms in a complicated geometry, making weird quantum physics possible.
Scientists have just created a new, strange type of molecule. It’s made of a bunch of atoms bound together in a ring, like many other, simpler molecules. But if you could somehow zoom in on the electrons zipping about the atoms, you’d see that their motion around the ring had become weird and twisty. Those twists form a new structure akin to the famously mind-bending one-sided, one-edged Möbius strip but even more complicated.
The team, based at IBM Research, engineered this molecule by manipulating…
