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We report a new advance in the study of muonium (Mu) reactivity; specifically, we report the rate constant for the Mu + H2(vibrational quantum number n = 1) reaction determined by measurements at 300 K and by converged quantum mechanical calculations. Comparisons are made with earlier results for D + H2 (n = 1) and with the corresponding thermal reaction rates. The measurements are a sensitive probe of the high-curvature region in the entrance valley of the potential energy surface (PES) and thus provide a qualitatively different probe of the PES than that provided by any previous experiment.

Electron-transfer phenomena in biological macromolecules are among the most important processes of life science. So far, a limited number of microscopic studies exist, and most knowledge is based on macroscopic studies. In order to overcome this situation, a labelled electron method with positive muons was recently developed and successfully applied to directly explore microscopic electron-transfer phenomena in representative proteins, such as cytochrome c, myoglobin and cytochrome c oxidase, and DNA. The principle, some details of each experiment and future perspectives are described.

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