University of North Dakota scientist Mark Hoffmann's version of Star Search goes a long way -- a very long way -- out into the universe.

Hoffmann, a computational chemist, and his colleagues Tryve Helgaker, a well-known Norwegian scientist, and co-authors E.I. Tellgren and K. Lange, also working in Norway, have discovered a molecular-level interaction that science had puzzled over for decades but had never seen.

That discovery, it turns out, may redefine how science views chemical compound formation. It also answers questions about what goes on in