The hydrated electron plays an important role in various fields of chemistry, physics and biology. Larsen and his co-workers claimed in their Science paper [Science 329, 65, (2010)] that an alternative physical picture of the hydrated electron model emerges from a series of mixed quantum-classical molecular dynamics simulations based on their new pseudopotential.

Túri and Madarász inspected [Science 331, 1387, (2011)] the pseudopotential of Larsen using exact quantum mechanical calculations and showed that the model contains inaccuracies. These problems seriously undermine the credibility of the simulation results. A simple introduction of a correction to the original potential has been demonstrated to recover the traditional cavity picture, a hydrated electron localizing in a solvent void surrounded by properly oriented water molecules.