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Chemists Build an Explosive Super-Molecule
Lockle writes "A new super explosive has been invented at the University of Chicago. It's based on an existing explosive molecule called "Cubane" but it has oxygen and nitrogen bonded to it for a bigger boom. It's called Octanitrocubane. The news release can be found at Angewandte Chemie International Edition which is a German chemistry magazine (page is in English). More detailed info about Cubane, Octanitrocubane's predecessor, can be found at a site devoted to it."
give me some beans, and lighter, and i'll top that.
The ONCe-fired, ONCe-killed gun!
Fighting the War on the War on Drugs.
http://smokedot.org/
...In their defense, they may actually have a use for cubane.com.
______________________________________
um, sigs should be heard and not seen?
rooooar
I love it - "super-explosive". Yeah... since when did exothermic reactions get to be more potent than nuclear explosives? Just wait... once it hits the cover of Wired and the NY Times it'll be potent enough to destroy entire *cities* with just a few drops of this stuff (Fact checking, what's that?). Mark my words - this'll get blown out of proportion (pun intended) by the media.
"Yotto, yotto."
"Because he's holding a molecule of Octanitrocubane!!"
"Eee cabbo nawoooshka da babble e foto Shta Treck"
"Oh, the might Jabba says that Octanitrocubane sounds like silly techno-babble and suggests you go back to Star Trek."
(1) ... to install expensive bloatware that will reduce their productivity while forcing them to purchase new hardware to run larger tied and bundled applications with the same functionality as the previous versions...
(2) ... to take nearly a decade to catch on to the fact that Microsoft has a monopoly on PC OS systems and that maybe getting certified would catch you some of their trickle-down dollars.
(3) ... to download pr0n and ju4r3z over their fat pipe oblivious to the fact that the non-MS network gear is logging your illicit and illegal behavior
(4) ... to read a "dummies" guide to certification to pay to be tested on IT common sense.
Where do I sign up again?
"Cause there's 40 different shades of black, so many fortresses and ways to attack, so why you complainin'?"
The science behind Octanitrocubane is actually almost fourty years old. A Swiss/German chemist by the name of Fritz Veinluhg published a paper outlining the basic structures in 1958, as part of an alternate hydrofusion technology proposal. It was also expected that these advances would lead to weapons uses, but a lack of funding and governmental support, not to mention overshadowing research being performed in the US, seemed to doom Veinluhg's work. However there was a surge of interest in the man after his death in 1986. It's good to actually see something come of it, and hopefully Veinluhg will be remembered for his fresh outlook on molecular science.
...would be a Beowulf cluster of these molecules! Wow!
("Bring it on. I don't care. I've got karma points to spare.")
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
If you read the article, it sais that the explosive is not as dense and therefore not as powerfull as it was expected to be. At least in its present form... Personally I am quite happy with that, because this means that there is still no cooking recipe for yet another explosive. On the other hand I hope they fix the theory for science sake.
For the Dutch people, there is a piece about it in the Volkskrant Wetenschap sectie.
Use Adsense for Charity
The article does not say that it has a "bigger boom" as the slashdot headline implies. It says it could be, but says the crystalline form does not have the density they predicted. Researchers are still looking for the denser version.
You mean slashdot has a science/math story that isn't related to patents? No way! Someone tell this guy he's missing the boat....
This really beats the hell out of all the legal shit we've been seeing here for the past while. It also tops any of the vast number of IPO stuff we've seen in the past while too.
As per usual, I say fuck the ACs too chicken shit to at least make up a pseudo-name to flame with. Good job Roblimo.
I care!
:> For those of us who do like them, we'll read the articles.
:> I think a lot of people are pleased with Slashdot (like me!).
:> I bit :>
Sometimes there are articles that I don't care about on Slashdot. Sometimes there are articles I -do- care about. Its important to understand that we don't all have the exact same interests. I think the Slashdot crew has a terrific set of categories that they post about, and if there is one category you don't like, its very easy to filter that topic out.
So, go do that if you don't like Science things
So, quit with the negative attitude. If you don't like Slashdot, leave
Oh well.
I wonder how this will effect the space program. If it can be mass-produced then the aerostar project might be that much closer to completion
Robin, you've done it again!
First, the red cars!
Now, the "Cubane" molecule.
Don't you see, people! Cubane = CUBAN!
And what are Cubans? COMMUNISTS!
Because of the recent advances of our Socialist Revolution into the so-called 'hard' (as opposed to 'soft' sciences, such as Marxism, Leninism, Statism), we will soon possess the super-explosives to out the evil Capitalist fat cat industrial leaders, like the king of the Randite batards himself, President KKKlinton, after which the wheels of industry will be halted, and the workers will once again assume control of production!
COMRADES! We must seize the oppurtunity that Comrade Miller has afforded us! Death to capitalism! We shall be free!
The hand, though well constructed(:-)) is a very crude touch and I find it insulting both to my sensibilty and to my trust in Slashdot to avoid this kind of sh-t. I have to say this was one of the weaker moments in Slash's history.
Respectfully, mmt
P.S. All you "Anonymous Cowards"... have some respect for Rob and at least sign you responses!
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What exactly are the commercial possiblilities of Ovine Aviation?
I notice that "Cubane" sounds a helluva lot like
"Cobain". Listening to an R.E.M. song:
blame, blame, blame"You came to bang, bang, bang, bang, and bang,"
You bang, bang, bang, bang, and bang,
It's not my thing so let it go."
And that song's supposed to be a tribute to Kurt.
Coincidence? I think not.
(Aw, PHUQ! A black helicopter just landed in my
cornpatch... EOF)
Explosive power doubles every 133 years?
I can just see it now, the "Cuban Cubane Crisis".
"A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." --Saul Belloe
"American"? What's that?
Ah - You mean Spanish, right?
Hello, caller 100! Notice that I replied to your message before you posted it. To see how this happened and more magic, see this page.
Where is my mind?
Check out Project Upper/Mute, an all-around awesome compiler fra
/ \
c---c
Those 60-DEGREEbonds have got to be extremely unstable, maybe more than cubane's. And if you can stick 2 on top of each other... hoo boy...
Dunno if this would actually hold together, though.
Glückwünsche, haben Sie Slashdot ermordet, indem Sie zum korporativen Druck beugten und Subskriptionen einlei
...the first practical antimatter explosives.
You know it's only a matter of time. Imagine it, perfect control over explosive power from strategic nuke to radioactive firecracker that can be hidden in your pocket (okay, maybe not, I guess the containment hardware will probably start out around the size of a house; but eventually... ).
That will really change the world. Who cares about wimpy chemical explosives?
This stuff is bound to get some negative publicity...people think of explosives, and of course weaponry is one of the first things that comes to mind. Terrorist bombings are always eaten up and blown out of proportion (haha, punny) by the news, and the general public gets paranoid about anything that they don't understand...it's not as if this stuff is going to be freely available at drug stores.
It would probably be better if some stuff never made it to big news, and this is probably one of those things.
Robin: Who the FUCK cares?
I really want to know.
Many
--
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
The compound itself? Ah who cares. But Chime impressed me though.
-----
Want to reply? Don't know HTML? No problem.
No Zen is good zen
It's good to see the MIC is still funding top notch Death and Destruction research. It would be a real shame to see progress come to a grinding halt with regard to clever new ways to blow things/people/fleshy-headed-mutants into smaller bits.
Maybe I'm just being cynical and this research is actually competing with fuel cells for the right to power your Crusoe in 3 to 5 years.
Hey, it did work! You just have to look at it the right way...
Where is my mind?
Check out Project Upper/Mute, an all-around awesome compiler fra
As evident from this page and several other sources:
So for now, we are only seeing a few molecules at a time. However, 50 pounds of CL-20, which is about 20% more powerful than HMX, has been produced, and the government appears to have just finished the testing of warheads with CL-20.
About.com has links and information:
HMX and RDX
Another resource:
Cub ane Applications
----------
"They misunderestimated me." --George W Bush, Nov. 6, 2000
Go to this page.
Where is my mind?
Check out Project Upper/Mute, an all-around awesome compiler fra
Hey, I replied to your post before you made it! To put this trick to a useful task, see my "homepage."
And please don't let #150 be another AC!
Where is my mind?
Check out Project Upper/Mute, an all-around awesome compiler fra
Photon torpedos are quite a while in the future. And besides, because of coservation of energy, you have to put in all of the energy that you want to get back out.
This makes me wonder how expensive these things are to make. IANACE (I'm not a chemical engineer), but I'm pretty sure that the higher energy something is, the harder is it to make (since equilibrium is not in it's favor). Looking at the structure, it's no wonder that the thing is so unstable - the bonds that are supposed to be tetrahedral (~109 degress) are bent inward to 90 degrees, which increases the energy stored in it, but also the amount of energy that you have to put into it.
-ElJefe
It is easy for you to say. Do you know how many people will die from his research work? How more territorists will be able to produce more powerful bombs, and blow up buildings in America? Fritz Veinluhg, like Albert Einstein, will be remembered for their contributions to the murders of innocent people... Oh, wait, I forget I am a fool...
Fools of America, unite! Join the
I WANT TO SEE SOME PICTURES OF THIS BABY IN ACTION!!!!
ME WANT BOOM!!!Considering the large number of Linux users here, it is extremely unfair to post links to pages that cause pop-ups for a plug-in that is not available for Linux.
Thanks,
Ben
My usual seat in the cluetrain is at A HREF="http://pub4.ezboard.com/biwethey.ht
(2) Glue strip of sandpaper to top side edge of PC frame.
(3) Tell idiot cow-orkers to stay the hell away from your machine.
(4) Go to lunch.
(5) Listen to news on radio while you eat.
I did this to prove a point -- Slashdot moderators are complete morons that don't even bother to read before they moderate. I used the phrase "alternate hydrofusion techonology". Anyone who knows anything about the field will tell you that means ABSOLUTELY nothing! Veinluhg never existd, and Veinluhg isn't even a real name.
This is the most hilarious thing EVER! See, I am the Chide Molesta of Slashdot past, and I've found an even better way to kill the Karma whores. I have wasted 5 karma points getting moderated up, and you'll have to waste another 6 to get me below the default threshhold.
Please send fanmail to chide_molesta@hotmail.com. Slashdot moderators suck, and now I can prove that they're complete dumbasses! Fuck you all!
Containment is a major problem, as is producing sufficiently dense and stable antimatter (anti-hydrogen just ain't gonna cut it if you want to safely carry the equivalent of a strategic nuke in your pocket).
Eistein did NOT build the A-bomb, he was not part of the Manhattan Project. He layed some of the ground work (very fundamental, and important, but not direct), and recommended to the President that we start such a project; that is just about as far as you can take it. He also, later, was an outspoken critic of the program, and future programs (e.g., H-bomb).
Nevermind the politics of using the A-bomb, and the justification...
Looks good dumbass. Next time try the tag. Dumbfuck.
Shouldn't we be thanking Rob and Slashdot for what they have already acomplished? They're working hard as many of us can empathise. Too many things. Why not just write your own code though? Use mysql & php to make something equal or better than slashdots current system. (i'm currently working on one) here are some good sources the DevShead and WebMonkey for those of you who just want to copy and paste and not learn anything... don't bother.
It adds to my scroll time and I could be doing something productive during that time... like... um... posting compla^H^H^H^H^H^Himportant messages on /.!
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What exactly are the commercial possiblilities of Ovine Aviation?
How would you propose that they go about making money from the /. source code? Comments are easy, methods for making them are included in cgi programming books as example programs. Logins are likewise straightforward. Administering them is a little more difficult, but still feasible. The real jewel of the code is the moderation system, but that is unneccessary for sites with a low volume. So who are they going to sell this code to, that doesn't already employ programmers to make their own cgi solution anyway? I doubt there is much of a market for this kind of thing.
Communication is only possible between equals
Notice the name Cuban-nee, Octa-nitro-Cuban-nee? Even the name of the chemist is from two Chinese communist leaders too. I remember there was one similar jokes about a molecule being discovered around administrations, government offices, etc., that can slow down chemical activities. That joke is on why things around these places just work slower than any other places. This one I'm not sure what the joke is, could be a little racial...
- Etam
Moderation Totals:Offtopic=2, Flamebait=4, Troll=4, Funny=7, Underrated=1, Total=18
:)
Wow, that sure got you guys moving...
Nice ASCII though...
<^>_<(ô ô)>_<^>
I almost want to sue this company... just for taking up space... they should be paying andover.net advertising fees
wow... trolls everywhere... yeah i think it's cool that they might be sell outs.. if you guys take a look at the readme in the slash code it's full of rob being poor and stuff... and now he isn't maybe enough people sent him money or something... send me money who ever you are!
What amused me about a superconducting magnetic coil was that it didn't require much extra energy to maintain the magnetic field, only to set it up. Theoretically, were a room-temperature superconducting material discovered, you could put the trap in your pocket...wiping every credit card in your presence, making weird patterns on nearby screens, and giving your future children third arms (not really). =)
Quantity is also an issue. In order to be useable and trappable, you need "cold" antimatter (i.e., not moving at 99% of the speed of light!); LEAR used to be the #1 place for this sort of thing, but CERN closed LEAR down, so now we're just left with Fermilab, which apparently isn't very good at generating cold antimatter in quantity (that's just on hearsay). There's speculation of a new, better facility in the works...?
But yes, just to bring things back to reality, my simulations on the computer dealt with a single antiproton being eased through clouds of positrons (anti-electrons) in the hope that some of the positrons would catch onto the antiproton to form AntiHydrogen. I'm not sure that in the 4 years since then they've even managed to get a single confirmed COLD (trapped) atom of AntiHydrogen. I remember that one of the funnier and more intriguing questions was "Which way will it fall under gravity?" (the strong presumtion is DOWN, but nobody knows for sure!).
It's going to be a long time before we have to worry about anti-matter bombs, especially small, portable, undetectable ones. (6 Tesla magnetic fields and the devices that make them are pretty hard to sneak around in a subtle fashion!)
David E. Weekly (dew, Think)
David E. Weekly
Code / Think / Teach / Learn
h4x0r for
That's more than escape velocity from earth. Now we can really blow things away...
bla
I'm not sure if it would be possible to synthesise, or if it would revert to an adamantane structure, but a 4 Carbon Tetrahedronically arranged molecule would have even greater bond strain. We did say above that bond strain didn't directly relate to delta-H(combustion) but that would still be an extremely reactive molecule.
Hows about tetranitrotetrahedrane? (having mental blackout on how to name polycyclics, and can't see how one would name this anyway, 1,2,2-tricyclo?). That would have to go somewhere on their 'strength tester' of how many bricks of steel it goes through when you blow it up.
Does this compound exist (I think it would be similar to the structure for white phosphorus?), and is it possible to make?
-Muttley
M.
then don't read every fucking comment on it! just skip the article.
Meme of the day: I browse "Disable Sigs: Checked". So should you.
I'd agree, actually.
For a couple of pages I worked up using Chime, see
The atomic orbitals page
Repr esentative proteins
To the poster who lamented that Chime isn't available for Linux. Nope, but the Rasmol source code is available- start porting. Chime is one of the major reasons I use NT on my workstation rather than Linux. (I'm not a good enough C programmer to do it, or I'd consider it.)
Eric
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Antimatter containment is 100% feasable.
What you do is take your anti-proton, and then make a proton orbit it, in a manner exactly analogus to a conventional atom. They don't touch, so they do not anhilate. The anti-proton orbits at a radius much closer than that of the electron in hydrogen (due to it's much greater mass. In fact it's mor accurate to say that they orbit around a common centre of mass).
This configuration is stable, until you excite the system, to seperate the two constituents, and allow them to recombine. This is exactly analogus to the photoelectric effect, and can be done by application of electromagnetic radiation (I belive that it's somewhere in the ultraviolet range, all though it might need to be x-rays).
The system is pretty stable, as things go. Until made in bulk, it's impossable to say how stable, but predictions show that the rate of spontaneus decay is low enough to be a viable system of antimatter containment.
This as the nice advantage that all you need to do to liberate energy is irradiate it, and it presents no more containment problems than, say, tritium.
I belive that three (3) 'atoms' of this were made, although I can't find a reference on that. Problem is that in order to make it, you require to pass two streams, one matter, one anti matter past each other. The yield from this is exceptionally low.
Still, problem of containment, and ignition, has been solved. With this, in a system, it would be feasable to have a 1 mg antimatter bomb the size of your computer. If memory serves me correct, that's enough to destroy Earth.
Sweet dreams...
--
I shook the can. he he he. i feel like a troll..
But Charlie is no more.
What he thought was H2O
Was Octanitrocubane.
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Imagine: Kurt Cubane and a molecule that destroys itself. Hmmm... Is there some similarity here?
And sometimes it's a Cubane Cigar. Looks like the old exploding cigar prank is going to get a new lease on life.
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As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
About the energy: The difference to other
explosives which bring their own oxidizer
will not be dramatic.
The numbers for FAE explosives cannot be
compared directly. The energy/weight ratios
exclude the oxygen, which comes from the air.
They can only be used where plenty of air
is available. They cannot be used underground,
under water, in space, or in normal bombs
for small targets.
Could you not line a stamp with this 'compound' and have it go off at a lick? Very scary.....do this so my bank will do free online banking :) Another use? BB guns that would be made of this entirely....air to bb, bb to wall, wall to pieces. [flesh? ewww] NTGoodGuy out....... Yes....NT support, as I say 'to each his own'.
Wacked-Support NT
I'm a novice that this so don't go karma-whomping me if this question is shallow.
I'm interested in energy storage by chemical means. An example would be taking hydroelectric power in New Zealand (where it's really cheap) making compounds, shipping the compounds to the US, using the chemical energy to create electrical and selling the energy.
If I'm reading your comment correctly cubane would be the best shipping medium: most energy per mole (weight is actually more important) and most stable. Convertibility efficiency, shipping requirements and other factors affect this but its a start.
Such a system could put solar and wind energy right on the map as far as energy sources. Of course, who can beat hydrolysis and sending the hydrogen to market in a blimp?
So long and thanks for all the fish . . . !!!
Thanks man,
you saved me a ton of work (having ceased to work in chem, i sort of buried all my books)
any way, as a benchmark, picric acid and tnt both come in around 400-500 kj per mole... so if someone gets some comparasons, we have answers on power.
I was doing a chemistry project on Cubane. Due about a week ago. Could've really used this article back then. Ah, well. Still neat to see. Cubane's got more potential than just explosives. Various derivitives have properties that could be useful in fighting AIDs and cancer or building strong plastics.
-RickHunter
--"We are gray. We stand between the candle and the star."
--Gray council, Babylon 5.
You wanna know? Try it and set up a webcam for the rest of us to see. If you stand next to it and dump a bunch in I will give you a dollar. But I want footage. HaHa
If you want my respect, give it first...
If you don't want my respect, expect mine before you give it.
I faked the whole thing.
Wow, what a lot of work for so little real point. You spent half an hour faking evidence and a couple of minutes swearing in German. Gee, I can see just how valuable this must be to you. And for what?
I did this to prove a point -- Slashdot moderators are complete morons that don't even bother to read before they moderate.
Oh, no! Sound the alarms! Some of the moderators must be *gasp* human!
Big whoopee. So your puny attempts at witty rebuttal failed the last couple of times, and this time you wanted to get even. To prove, ultimately, that humans are not as reliable as we'd like to be.
So what? No-one ever claimed that the moderation system wouldn't be without errors, or bias, or political chicanery (of which you've given us a perfect example). At worst, moderators just behave like every other ordinary person, believing what they're told because it's easier than disbelieving.
Your point seems to me to be similar to that russian 'wonderkid' who 'cracked' the distributed.net RC5 system to submit a huge number of bogus results. He successfully gave the distributed.net people weeks of hassles - to appear first on the scores (how terribly unimportant) and to 'crack' a system that was never designed to be 'secure' in the first place. It's like opening the door to someone's house and saying "look, a burglar can get through here!"
Ultimately, Slashdot cannot be a useful source of news and opinion without moderation. There's just simply too much bandwidth taken up with idiots banging on their own private joy-buttons posting garbage that no-one wants to read. I, and most other Slashdot readers, take the risk of bad moderation because the information that the non-bad moderation leaves us with is useful.
Fleischmann and Pons thought they'd invented Cold Fusion, too, and that's been a feature on Slashdot. If we wanted an authoritative journal, we'd buy "Nature". We come to Slashdot to listen to the speculation and opinions as much as to hear the facts. All you've done in your puny attempt at 'revolution' is to successfully point out the weaknesses in the system that everyone already knows about.
Congratulations, you've just proved how useless and redundant your point really is.
--Reason is a tool. Try to remember where you left it.--