Catalysts are substances that speed up chemical reactions and are essential for the production of many industrially important chemicals. Researchers all over the world are working to understand how catalysts work, and how to improve them. Until now nanoscale catalysts could only be observed before and after a reaction by observing the samples, but how a catalyst undergoes changes and how it adapts during a reaction could not be seen but could only be explained. Miquel Salmeron and Gabor Somorjai of Berkeley Lab have delineated how a catalyst behaves during a chemical reaction. The scientists synthesized nanoscale particles composed of common catalytic metals made of rhodium and palladium and others made of platinum and palladium and studied in a spectroscopy instrument to watch in real time how the bimetallic nanoparticles restructured themselves when exposed to different gases. They were able to observe during the reaction that specific metals became active and participated in the reaction at the surface. This observation clearly established how the catalyst participates in the chemistry and can give scientists the ability to develop cheaper and smarter catalysts to suit the requirements.