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Science 19 June 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5934, p. 1516
DOI: 10.1126/science.1170488
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Technical Comments

Comment on "Experimental Test of Self-Shielding in Vacuum Ultraviolet Photodissociation of CO"

Qing-Zhu Yin,1,* Xiaoyu Shi,2 Chao Chang,2,{dagger} Cheuk-Yiu Ng2

Chakraborty et al. (Reports, 5 September 2008, p. 1328) concluded that an anomalously enriched atomic oxygen reservoir can be generated through carbon monoxide photodissociation without self-shielding. We show that this conclusion is based on the incorrect assumption that the spectral shifts of the 97.03-nanometers and 107.61-nanometers vibrational bands for C16O, C17O, and C18O are negligible and point out shortcomings of the low-resolution light source used in their experiments.

1 Department of Geology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
2 Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.

{dagger} Present address: Quantronix Corp., 41 Research Way, East Setauket, NY 11733, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: qyin{at}ucdavis.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)