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It Came From Beyond ... In Buckyballs!
ooky writes: "Scientists at NASA have claimed to have found conclusive proof that gases from outside the solar system can arrive on Earth (and other planets, presumably) in neat little buckyball cages! They've found a type of helium 3 that does not exist (nor, presumably, has ever existed) in our solar system in these fullerene packages, deposited in a layer around the Earth dating from the 65 MYBP dino-killing asteroid collision. Some of our own atmosphere may have arrived this way during the Age of Bombardment! For more info on buckyballs and what they are, see here and here." The article is boundingly enthusiastic rather than the least bit skeptical, so take it with a few mols of (fullerinzed) sodium chloride. Still ...
Do be sure to post a hyperlink for us when you have the site up and running.
One atom of oxygen per 60 atoms of carbon is not enough oxygen to sustain a fire.
This is the funniest damn thing I've read all day...
No, wait....*this* might actually be the funniest thing I've read all day...
Nuclear fusion in stars produces both helium-3 and helium-4, while helium present on earth is formed by radioactive decay, which produces only helium-4. Therefore, any helium-3 found on earth must be of extraterrestrial origin. The question is, since helium-3 is produced in the sun, why do they assume that the helium-3 came from outside the solar system? Was there a substantially higher ratio of helium-3 to helium-4 than that of any location in our solar system?
Buckminster fulleren is composed of benzene and pentene rings, silcon cannot form in this manner. It is extremely stable because the pi bonds form a stable layer of electrons on the outside and inside of the molecule. I believe a chemist from Rice University was one of the first to document Bucky Ball's.(Small was the name?) He along with another scientist received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Chaos theory is bunk.
I don't mind these grits postings, but why moderate them up? Some people are trying to avoid these posts by only viewing +1 and above. Is the moderator trying to piss them off?
Ah! That explains why it floats above the Earth, right? Because it's full of helium!
Gosh! I'd always wondered that. What'll they figure out next, I'd like to know! Gosh, they're smart!
A modified buckyball could be used to selectively deliver medicines to specific parts of the body.
Actually The Liposome Company is developing new drug delivery systems using lipids (fats) as a wrapper to deliver chemotherapy agents directly to tumors.
Cool! Care to supply us with more details of how buckyballs can be stretched?
Hey! Fuck you and the horse you rode in on! Redundant implies repetitive and unnecessary. This guy's post was neither!
Lots of stupid moderating going on today--someone must have an axe to grind.
But can you make a beowulf cluster from buvkyballs? Man, I bet you'd get some kick-ass Quake framerates on one of those!
:)
In all seriousness, however, the real fervor over buckyballs died out some years ago. Buckyballs didn't turn out to be quite as useful as was hoped. The hype train moves on - now if you want to get funding you have to work "nano" into your proposals somehow.
Other common molecules based on architectural shapes are the Eiffletowerene molecule, Statueolibertene and the PolytatrafloroGreatwallochinine long chain molecule.
They were named in homage to Buckminster Fuller's large, sweaty, hairy, wrinkly, British testicles which swung below his mammoth cock like pendulums descended from Heaven above. Covered with a thick paste of ballcheese, (a ballcheese with a distinctly sharp odor and taste), Bucky's balls were such an inspiration to the continent that the Queen herself wanted to suck on one.
This would prove to be the tragic undoing of Bucky's balls, for the Queen was brought to orgasm the second that her tongue touched the ball surface, and in her resulting frenzy, she choked on the thick, creamy ballcheese, and died on the spot, with a pubic hair hanging off of her lower lip.
Bucky was tried and convicted of Murder with the Devil's Genetalia, and his balls were lopped off with an axe. The Pope took the balls and stuck them up his ass, which nullified their Satanic power, because as we all know, up the Pope's ass is the Holiest place to be.
Years later, when the power of science proved to be a threat to the power of the Church, a group of Helsinki scientists named their latest discovery "Bucky balls", because they had become a pain in the Pope's ass, just like Bucky's devilish balls.
One of these scientists, Ænîúsçõøÿ Torvalds, begat many children, one of whom is the father of our beloved Linus Torvalds.
Amen.
?
Well, was it?
The thing I find most interesting is buckytubes. Stretch a ball, and it adds carbon atoms systematically, with no limit to how long it can become. these tubes are extremely stable and strong, with impressive tensile strength... think monowire.
There's actually a race of teeny little people who play football (i.e. soccer) with teeny tiny little balls, pumped up with single molecules of gas.
Expect someone to come next week asking if they can have their ball back.
Trolling for Scooby doo!
It was because they look like the left over parts after you castrate your cat.
The evil duo quickly subdued the little lab rabbit. They strapped the now helpless animal's head to the sex table with hot leather. Jon Katz had they urge, and removed his pants, which were now buldging. After slipping off his briefs, Jon Katz tightly fastened the leather straps and was ready to begin.......
Jon Katz began to "grease up". Shoving endless amounts of vaseline and baby oil all around the rabbit's ass, he slid his purple head firmly into the rabbit's tight asshole. Even though the rabbit was slightly unconscious, screams of pain were constanly being emmited. Hemos reached for the chain whip and smacked the rabbit's soft nose until its face was soaked with blood. Now, with the rabbits head drooped over the edge of the table, Jon Katz continued his sex hunt. His now tingling cock was pushed deeper and deeper through the thick layers of skin which covered the bowel tract. Five, six, seven, then finally all eight and 3/4 inches were plunged deep within the animal's love canal.
Jon Katz's manhood tingled with every slight movement of the now half alive rabbit. He began rhythmically sliding in and out, moaning with pleasure on every thrust. Jon Katz worked himself into a hot orgasm. The blood, now coming steadily out of the rabbit's ass with every thrust of Jon Katz's pelvis, could be heard dripping on the floor. Jon Katz's rate increased and with a final push, he spurted creamy white love gel far up into the rabbit's bleeding ass.
The blood and cum mixed together on the floor, which had now accumulated a large puddle. Unknown to Jon Katz, the semen had acted as a powerful enemma for the rabbit and out ushered the contents of its intestine. The stool was loose and soft. It fell to the ground with a soft thud and broke into small pieces. The obnoxious smell caught Jon Katz's attention, and no sooner had he fallen to the ground and began licking the large puddle of blood, sperm, and stool. Exited at Jon Katz's enthusiasm, Hemos dropped to his knees and also began to slurp the foul mixture.
After cleaning the floor with their tongues, Jon Katz and Hemos checked on the battered lab rabbit. It was barely able to hold its head up, as it had lost control of most of its motor fuctions. Feeling no pity for this sexually mistreated animal, they unstrapped it and tossed it across the room, only to make a loud and deep thud against the wall. Its blood soaked fur left spatters of red stains everywhere it touched. Hemos reached for his chain whip, while Jon Katz grabbed a pair of rusty hedge clippers (one of the many torture devices carried around for "convenience"). They made their way over to the rabbit. The rabbit was struggling for every last bit of air it could, just gasping and wheezing.
"Awwwww. Poor little thing," Hemos maniacally laughed. He raised his arm and thrust the cold metal whip down, exposing the rabbit's bloody flesh. He kept whacking and whacking at the furry bag of blood. Then, when Hemos stopped to catch his breath, Jon Katz stepped over with his rusty hedge clippers. He knelt over the rabbit who was knocking loudly on death's door. Jon Katz took a quick glance at the clippers, grinned, and then thrust them deep into the body of the rabbit, obviously hitting many arteries. As the blood squirted into Jon Katz's face he moved the clippers around in hopes to find a thick bone to crunch. "Aha! The femur!" he yelled out with excitement. Jon Katz wedged the clippers against the bone. He opened them wide......then closed down on them with all his might. The bone could be heard deep inside the rabbit, being mutilated. Death had glazed the bunny's eyes.
The rabbit lay dead, a bloody mess on the floor. Its bodily fluids freely surged across the tiled floor. Then with a look of extreme satisfaction, both Jon Katz and Hemos lit up some smokes, gathered their belongings and quietly left the hospital grounds, knowing with confidence that they would strike again, somewhere, soon.
Right... it was named after Buckminster Fuller. This is not a disputable fact.
there is only one kind of helium 3. New kinds are unlikely to be discovered. Isotopes that can have a 3 in the name:
tritium (radioactive hydrogen)
helium (helium 3)
lithium (impossibly unstable isotope duee to lack of neutrons).
No room for new types there. Or maybe I am just an evil skeptic.
I do not remember who named them so, but the name is derived from Buckminister Fuller (buckyballs full name is buckminister fullerene), an architect who sought to reduce the use of materials in building construction, famous for domes using an open framework.
This should help anyone who wishes to research this further.
P.A.C. (Paul A. Clayton or Perpetual 'Anonymous Coward')
Your lead in says that these cosmic gas bags contained wierd Helium-3, this is wrong! It is the fact they are enriched in Helium-3 (decay product of tritium typically) that denotes them as being extra-terrestrial. Terrestrial helium comes from alpha particles grabbing electrons to become Helium-4.
Unmoderated troll threads available here.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
then you agree that Oog is a sack of useless shit!!
This sig will bend over for a dollar!
I beg to differ; they have been discovered in Malaysia as Petronastowerene.
to the moderator-
I was trying to lure them *away* from Slashdot!
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
memo to moderators-
Since you are apparently being recruited from streetcorners these days allow me to point out that in the above post I was being sarcastic.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Around here 1970 is largely "Before Puberty".
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Imagine if we'd missed out on valuable information like that.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Watch the above get moderated up
Sheesh!
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
"Buckyballs, lacy-looking molecules made up of carbon atoms, are also known as fullerenes and are named in honor of Buckminster Fuller because they are shaped like the geodesic dome he invented."
If that's not sufficient, there are 2 other links in the sentence that begins "For more info on buckyballs and what they are...".
Gee, I coulda had first post, but I wasted time looking to see what the story was about and whether there was anything intelligent I could add to the conversation. : )
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
I thought that hydrogen was fusion fuel and that helium is the product of that fusion.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
You're absolutely right. I attended a seminar some years about this topic. The navy has researched this for sometime. He(3) is an isotope of Helium. Very rare. On earth is is produced during the natural decay of Plutonium. Very rare indeed.
If fused perfectly (assuming my memory holds) it releases heat + water + hydrogen.
What a great fuel for deep space travel. You get the energy from the fusion to propell your ship and as a byproduct water to drink and more fuel.
The talk I attended discussed mining it from the surface of the moon.
see this link . not sure if this is the same group but it is the same idea.
And again this link (gotta love google). This one discusses fusion with deutrium. The talk I saw was He3+He3.
is the name. The year I matriculated was the year after Smalley won the Nobel prize, and our president's speech at matriculation was rife with references to this. That and how he didn't find male buttocks funny, but that's another story.
"There is no culture in computer science, only cults." - M. Felleisen
There's also a BBC News article here.
Do fission or fusion reactions such as the ones operating when nuclear bombs explode create any? I'd imagine they'd make at least some carbon.
- Man would I love to have a tank of Helium 3.
So, get out your credit card and call Isotec and order some!It'll probably only set you back ~$100 for a liter.
Seems to contradict the presumption that the Helium is unlike any that existed within the solar system...
Otherwise, interesting.
Star life summary.
Summary of massive star/supernova reactions.
"We are stardust..."
Now our former undergrad professors who were ALREADY fascinated with Buckyballs [for no apparent reason] will NEVER shut up !!
"He who questions training trains himself at asking questions." - The Sphinx, Mystery Men (1999)
Hmm and I thought that BP stood "before present" or 1970 to be exact!
Isn't it funny how some dude can tell everyone that an asteroid hit the earth 65 gazillion years ago and killed all the dinosaurs, and we all stand up and applaud them. To preface this statement after the fact, I am not trolling. I just find it amazing how everyone falls in line, year after year, with the same theories. I remember as a child when everyone decided that the dinosaurs had died from great volcanic eruptions, and the ash blotting out the sun. This of course led straight to the *ICE AGE*!!! Dah Dah Dah Dummm... Now we *know* for certain that a big fat hunk of dirt fell to the earth and crushed them :). What's wrong with a simple climate change theory? What's wrong with small mammalian creatures overrunning the earth, eating soft boiled dinosaur eggs? What, pray tell, is wrong with a bunch of guys with guns shooting the dinosaurs? Ok, the last was a bit silly, but is it any worse than a giant rock (Doomsday! Doomsday!) falling to earth causing massive destruction and a return to primordial soup? s ome-hollywood-cuties-who-survive-and-rep roduce-in-a-now-perfect-paradise-world movie that our friends out west shove down your throat. I wonder if you will even seriously think about what I just said, or if your programming is too strong and it blocks it out.
We are all sheep, following the "shepherd" wherever he may wander in his dreams, building reality on top of layers of hypotheses. It makes me sick. Reminds me of MTV and Cosmopolitan magazine. Oh, gee, were we all really derived from fish? Wow. Does the moon look larger on the horizon because we think it's farther away? Wow. That last one really got me when I read it a while back. Sure looks closer to me, just saw one the other day, thought it was gonna hit me in the nose. WAIT! That's what happened! The moon collided with the earth, then bounced back and began an orbit. There's my theory. Now let's all sing along with it and pat ourselves on the backs till we're sore, thinking how f***ing brilliant we all are. Let's award ourselves prizes for it.
Why can't we get a life. There's nothing wrong with trying to uncover the mysteries of the universe. But accepting them as gospel truth for ten years, then ditching them, is a silly practice best left behind. "Scientific" truth has no more basis in fact than any form of Judaism (Islam, Hebrew, or Christian), Buddhism, Hinduism, or Jainism. At least the religious folks have some notion that they know little or nothing about the details of the creation of the universe.
Now I'm sure I'll get all sorts of responses from people, yelling and screaming about how I'm stupid, and I ignore all the research, and that these theories have been around for ages. Unfortunately, the age of a theory, the research behind it, or my stupidity will not change history, nor will it uncover the truth about how things started, ended, and then started over again. Or whatever did happen anyway. In the meantime, you should continue to believe all those theories, at least for another 20 years, when a new one comes into style, and look down upon creationists, and atheists who don't believe in the big bang or the asteroid mythologies. They're out there, you know! Don't forget to buy tickets to see the latest asteroid-hits-the-earth-everyone-dies-except-for-
The brains of a chicken, coupled with the claws of two eagles, may well hatch the eggs of our destruction.
Here's my attempt at connecting dinosaurs with buckyballs...
One of the most understated theories of dinosaur extinction has to do with the Chaos Theory (or, more appropriately, Catastrophe Theory, in which there are six manifolds of states describing the being on the "edge of chaos"). Basically stated, it was their behavioral changes that "threw" the dinosaurs over the edge. As for buckyballs, their motion is chaotic as well. They are never at rest, and their position at any given time can never be measured (60 carbon atoms rotating and bouncing around...pretty hectic). However, chaos theory can attempt to predict basic trends, like how one can graph one week or one year of the stock market and compare similarities. Because buckyballs can be studied in a controlled environment, and since they're small and fast, perhaps the study of buckminster fullerenes can shed some light on why the dinosaurs really died...
"`Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.'" -Douglas Adams, THHGTTG
One of the conclusions I came away with is pretty obvious: The more geometrically balanced a molecule is, the more stable it is. Typically, more stable molecules are also harder to create. Entropy tends to dictate lower energy structures.
i have a slight corection, the reason the bucky ball is more stable(and most organic molecules) is not based on geometry but on resonance (sp?). in a bucky ball there is an extended Pi cloud due to the formation of of the ball. this extended pi cloud is what makes it _very_ stable since electrons like to be stablized by as many nulcei aspossible and teh extended pi cloud makes it so they are stablized by all teh carbons in the bucky ball.
so yoy were close buts its not the geometry that makes it stable but the stability that forms the geometry
just my $.02
Buckyballs were first discovered in Taco Bell bathrooms.
First dates lead to the formation of enormous buckyballs often released into the atmosphere after the date is over.
That's what I love about them high-school girls. I get older, they stay the same age... yes they do.
--Wooderson 1976
-- jimmycarter
I concur. Using terms like "extra sub-atomic particles" is just obfuscating the fact that it's just a relatively rare isotope of helium, with one neutron less than normal. The nature of the helium is far less interesting than the way it was contained. It doesn't sound far from idea (in Elite Frontier?) of containing anti-matter within organic molecules as a way of storing fuel. Not that it's in the least bit practical, but it's interesting to yet again see the overlap of science and science fiction.
But of course you can't forget one of the largest molecules known to man, the SearsTowerene!
--TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
I believe the correct name is Buckminster fullereen or something.
:-)
Btw, you beat the Ph1rzt P0zt3rz, d00d!
I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
Sounds like a secure wireless alien communication channel to me. They are putting 1's and 0's inside the buckyballs!!
Now we've successfully tapped the wire, I assure you we won't be able to find these sometime later...
And for those who don't have VRML, here's are GIFs of a spinning buckyball and a flying buckyball (look out!). (Note: some artistic licensing here, but these buckyballs are all just theoretical anyway, right?)
Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks: temporary loans from the Public Domain, not real property ("intellectual" or otherwise)
Even better than the above, Lego Buckyballs are new this year! (And you thought you'd need to resort to K'nex for a properly rendered buckyball!)
Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks: temporary loans from the Public Domain, not real property ("intellectual" or otherwise)
You probably don't want to hear this, but you were right the first time.
"Brevity is the soul of wit," --Polonius (Hamlet Act II, sc. ii)
"Duterium and Tritium both have a *very* low binding energy per nucleon"
Gah! I need more sleep. I mean very high.
Sorry.
Shawn Poulsen (Fruan)
"On Slashdot, many obvious things are insightful." - Annonymous Coward, 2000/7/9
Damn. I really *did* need more sleep :o)
Shawn Poulsen (Fruan)
"On Slashdot, many obvious things are insightful." - Annonymous Coward, 2000/7/9
Well, in theory, you can fuse any two nuclei that are smaller than Fe, and still make an energy profit. However, the greater the binding energy per nucleon change, the greater the energy output.
Now, Duterium and Tritium both have a *very* low binding energy per nucleon, and so the energy output when you fuse these two into helium 4 (Which has a higher binding energy per nucleon) is rather large. Large enough to (hopefully) be larger than the energy needed to preform the fusion in the first place. However, it turns out that the fusion involving He-3 and some thing else to form yet something *else* (I don't rightly remember, but He3 +He3 => some sort of Be isotope would be a good guess) yeilds an even greater energy output.
Shawn Poulsen (Fruan)
"On Slashdot, many obvious things are insightful." - Annonymous Coward, 2000/7/9
0.0 to cooking in 0.63 seconds!
There's even an MPEG out there somewhere.
Does anyone know where the name buckyballs came from?
Sounds weird.
But in my defense the article that is posted on yahoo now is different (and gives slightly different and much more detailed info) than the short article I prepared my submission from yesterday. Unfortunately I don't have that version cached, so I can't prove it to all you chem whizes, and I didn't notice anything weird in the statement as I haven't taken inorganic chemistry since 1994 and have never taken astrophysics. But I thought that it was a very cool story, never the less, and I am pleased more than I can say to have had the story posted, which I never actually thought would happen. Thank you, timothy!!!!
--ooky
"We're the scientists of sound/we're mathematically puttin in down/If lightning strikes, best grab a ground..."
"My namesake medallion/Says never trust a Hal 9000..." - bboys
I don't know if it's actually possible to store molecules in a buckyball, unless it's one of the big ones. AFAIK there is only enough room for large atoms (or maybe small molecules like H2?)
And I don't see any connection between buckyballs and "Literally puncture-proof tires", lightweight protective vests, and glass-like structures. AFAIK, buckyballs are very stable, self-contained molecules that don't tend to bond with other buckyballs. So their stability is only good for themselves -- you can't generalize that since the molecule is stable it must be possible to build stable things out of it. Things like Kevlar or plastic are built out of unstable molecules and form themselves into large polymers that has stable bonds. Buckyballs are already stable enough they won't be easily formed into polymers, and if you break some of their bonds to make them bond to each other, their stable configuration will be lost.
mikre he sophia he tou Mikrosophou.
Just goes to show that it's possible to dumb down science without making it any easier to read.
This is _neat_ stuff, and what do we get from the Yahoo(tm) who wrote it? "Weird gases from outer space arrived on Earth during a dinosaur-killing asteroid strike 65 million years ago."
Weird Gases? The Big Space Rock? The Killer Asteroid? Come ON Yahoo, surely you can get a reporter who doesn't have to insult us with Sunday tabloid-style writing. (Not to mention that most of the hypotheses are reported as incontrovertible facts)
Bottom line: This story could have been written clearly, informatively, and intelligently while being just as understandable (or more so). It wasn't, by a country mile.
Am I the only one bothered by this?
Ah well. Off to find some coffee.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
i remember that.. I made one of those in Sr. Chem class, using styrofoam balls and straws.
Knowing about the structure, I can see how a gas molicule could be trapped inside one of these things.. pretty neet
well, that was my 2cents worth..
--DV
"The wolf and I are on a first name basis..."
--DV
In this day it is safer to be a ninja than a samurai
It'll probably only set you back ~$100 for a liter.
Liter is a unit of volume, which can just as easily contain vacuum. Which phase it the helium 3 in, liquid? If it's in the gaseous phase, what pressure is it at? Or to make this all really simple, just how many atoms of Helium 3 would I be getting for my money?
To email me,subtract my nick from my email address, starting with the second character. (hint: adto.uiuc.edu is wrong)
I don't think I would be complaining about coming in at ONLY 24th. And what is really cool about this is that it isn't a specially built supercomputer, it is a bunch of clustered NetFinity Machines. This once again proves the power of Linux.
I think that what they meant to say was that the ratio of Helium 3 to Helium 4 was much more than what would naturally be found in our solar system.
But they laughed at me! Laughed! The fools... they'll be sorry... they'll all be sorry!
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." - Alexander Hamilton
You can only trap small nobel gas and metal atoms. Typically, covalent elements will react with the fullerene. Its been tried with hydrogen, e.g., look here, here, and here.
Yes Grok
Well, my research indicates that the reptilian lifeforms currently inhabiting it have reached the end of their evolutionary path. The smaller mamalian species are being starved out of existence...
I see, Grok. Well fire a few mega-planet-fscking meteors at it using the mega-planet-fscking long range cannon.
Very good sire.
Oh, and put a few buckyballs in with the ammo so that the mammalian descendents will know that we helped them out...
Surely this sort of molecular nesting could have medical uses. A modified buckyball could be used to selectively deliver medicines to specific parts of the body. This of course has the opposite arguments as it could be used in chemical warfare but for conditions such as cancer, internally targeted drug delivery systems could decrease the doses of chemotherapy and increase the effectiveness.
.sig (insert funny sig here)
If the Bucky ball came first how did the Bucky ball let it inside? If the He3 came first how did it get inside the Bucky Ball. or did they appear at the same time together?
C.Burgess - email:colvinb@airnet.com.au
Okay, from a layman's perspective, let me see if I get this:
-Buckyballs are molecules composed (usually) of 60 carbon atoms, linked together to form a soccerball-like shape.
-They're damn strong and resilient.
-You can store smaller molecules inside them.
Okay, my question is - if we could mass-produce these, what kinds of products could Joe Consumer expect to see featuring buckyball "technology"?
-Literally "puncture-proof" tires
-lightweight protective vests for police and military use. If these things are as light as one would assume, they'd be more effective than current Kevlar.
-A buckyball-silicon mix that could be formed into glass-like structures, lightweight and superstrong for use in construction.
Maybe I'm off-base, but it seems like the benefits of this discovery may be one of the biggest revolutions to hit the economic community in a long while.
Could someone patent buckyball-making technology, or the process involved in creating them? Seems like another anti-trust lawsuit waiting to happen.
Microsoft Buckyball 2001, I can see it now...
~Matt Nute
"So, I'll put down my LART, and you'll put down your StUd1yK@pz, and we'll access UseNet like civilized people?" -The D
wow. an article on slashdot that wasn't all hot air... oops i mean ... sorry bad joke
BUCKYBALL NAME COME FROM BUCKMINSTER FULLER!!! FULLER KNOWN FOR DESIGN GEODESIC DOME!!! MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF CARBON ATOMS IN BUCKYBALL SIMILAR TO SHAPE OF FULLER GEODESIC DOME!!! THEREFORE SCIENTIST NAME IT BUCKYBALL IN HONOR OF BUCKMINSTER FULLER!!!
OOG THE OPEN SOURCE CAVEMAN!!! OOG BREAK HEAD WITH OPEN SOURCE CD!!!
First, its clear from the cnn article that what they found was simply He3, which is not found naturally on earth, and is instead gotten from the refinement process of plutonium. He4, the much more common isotope, is found in large underground deposits. As far as uses for He3, first on my mind is its use in cryogenics. One of the most common methods of acheiving very low temperatures (down to .008 K) involves the use of a He3 He4 mixture in what is called a dilution refridgerator. In my lab I have something like 30 liter-atmospheres of He3 that I use for just this purpose. Talk about He3 for use as fusion fuel notwithstanding (and something I'm not at all aware of), He3 is already a very important isotope.
Various people here and in the articles linked from the story have gone on about using Fullerines as a drug delivery system.
However it has also been stated that fullerines are incredibly stable.
So how do the drugs (or indeed anything else carried by the fullerine) get out of the bucky ball and actually delivered?
The two secrets to success: 1- Don't tell anyone everything.
-13
65 MYBP? Million years before petroleum?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
The most likely source of the extraterrstrial He-3 isn't beyond our solar system, more to the center of it. The Sun produces lots of He-3 and He-4 which flies out of the chromosphere, we call this the solar wind. AFAIK buckyballs form naturally when you flash-boil carbon (something that would be happening in lots of places in the solar system due to the heat of formation of the early solar system). During this time of the buckyball formation He would get itself trapped in the middle of these molecules. I highly doubt few if any of our atmospheric gases arrived by asteroid. Some of it would have been collected from the acretion disk and some would have been formed in chemical reactions from high energy particles (alpha particles and high energy photons) whacking into the surface of the Earth. Probably in the next two centuries He-3 will end up causing a Helium Rush to the moon. He-3 is VERY nice for fusion reactions and is also very useful for cooling things to very low temperatures, things like superconductors.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Um, I can't find any plutonium that emits He-3, maybe you ought to check a table before making such claims.
Also, there is no way that fusing He-3 gets you water and hyrogen. What it does get you (when you do He-3 + H-2) is a proton (i.e. a hyrdogen nucleus) which can be chemically burned to form water at the expense of your breathing oxygen. Not a good deal for long term space travel.
I highly doubt that He-3 + He-3 fusions gets you oxygen. If you think that it does, please show me a source.
I am not sure if you think that you can actually store antimatter inside buckyballs or not, so many pardons if I seem patronizing.
If you had an atom of, say, anti-He-4 inside a molecule of C60, the positron cloud of the He would very quickly interact with the electron cloud of the carbon atoms (i.e. before you can blink 4 electrons will have annihilated with 4 positrons). Additionally, I would guess that not long after that the bare anti-He nucleus would either be forcefully ejected or annihilated by a carbon nucleus. Not a very practical storage arrangement.
I wonder whether one can trap oxygen inside these buckyballs. If one can get enough stuffed inside and mass produce them, they'd be the perfect lighterfluid for BBQs, even better, one could mix them with normal charcoal to make "super"-charchoal - burns fast and is easy to light - no more lighterfluid aftertaste on them ribs...
It looks like there's a lot of research and stuff, but what are we really doing with these things? What's the hold-up?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I'm fairly certain that there is only *one* type of Helium 3 :o)
And while it may not occur on earth in any amount worth thinking about, it *does* occur with in our solar system. It is believed that many asteriods contain it, and that one of the most profitable space bussinesses would be mining it, and bringing it back to earth.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but Helium 3 makes a better fusion fuel that the classic Hydrogen 2 & 3 mix, and his fact combined with its complete scarcity make it currently the most valuable substance known to mankind.
Man would I love to have a tank of Helium 3.
Shawn Poulsen (Fruan)
"On Slashdot, many obvious things are insightful." - Annonymous Coward, 2000/7/9
...is not to find theories that are true, but rather to find theories that are less wrong.
Scientists understand this. It is the mass media, and the general populace who do not. Scientists are charged with creating models that are more accurate than the previous model. They understand that it too will be replaced by an even more accurate model in time.
Science says nothing of truth. We do not "know" that our laws of physics are "right" or "true". All we do know is that they fit the data very well. That's really all that we can ever hope for: to fit the data. If a theory or model fits the data, then it is useful and we use it.
This is a rather subtle point, that I think is lost on the masses. I think that most lack the scientific education needed to really grasp this. At this point, I could go off on a rant about American education, but I'll leave that to other Slashdot readers.
Still, your point is well taken. People that buy into the current theory wholesale are misleading themselves. However, I maintain that scientists don't buy into them wholesale. They know that such theories are fleeting. Its the largely uneducated media who distorts the picture.
--Lenny
--
Several years ago, I took an Organic Chemistry course. Very cool stuff..
One of the conclusions I came away with is pretty obvious: The more geometrically balanced a molecule is, the more stable it is. Typically, more stable molecules are also harder to create. Entropy tends to dictate lower energy structures.
Think of a water molecule. It has a positive dipole where the Oxygen sits, and a negative dipole where the hydrogen sits. The number of electrons in a bond, and the charges of the atoms involved dictate a certain geometry to the molecule.
A buckyball is pretty much spherical, composed of cyclohexane and cyclopentane (six and five-carbon rings) like a soccer ball. This is a very stable structure. It would take tremendous energy to break it. Contrast most other hydrocarbons, like octane, which are long chains of carbon, and are easily broken.
So using buckminsterfullerene to deliver Oxygen to charcoal is not going to work well. But, what it is being considered for is the encapsulation of radio-active isotopes for injection into the human body, for example. This way, a radioactive tracer is still useful, but keeps the bad stuff confined, and not bonding with other molecules.
As a side note, Arthur C. Clarke proposes that bucky-tubes (buckyballs, openned and connected with nanotubes - built up from individual atoms by nanites) could be used to make extremely long, extremely strong and extremely light cables for building an elevator to orbit.
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
If you don't know what a Bucky Ball is, Here's a VRML model of one that you can look at in your browser.
There is also another way to produce 4He that, while insignificant on a cosmic scale, accounts for most of the 4He in the earth's crust. It turns out that an alpha-particle is nothing but a 4He nucleus, and so alpha-decay produces helium as a byproduct. On earth, helium produced this way gets trapped in pockets in the crust (much like natural gas), and so can't escape into space. Atmospheric helium, on the other hand, tends to escape into space. So, what you have is helium in the atmosphere (including most of the 3He-laden primordial helium) escaping into space, and being replaced by helium produced in radioactive decay (which doesn't produce 3He at all), and that, I believe, is why the abundance of 3He on the earth is lower than in the solar system at large.
-rpl
"Bucky Shuttle" Memory Device: Synthetic Approach and Molecular Dynamics Simulations,
there are also MPEG simulations available here: Simulation of a nanotube-based memory element.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
The press release can be found here: http://george.arc.na sa.gov/dx/basket/pressrelease/00_20AR.html
A preview of the article will be posted at: http://www.pnas.org
It is research so it should be peer reviewed. But the source seems good.
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At Michigan State University, they are theorizing about doubled Bucky Balls, connected with a nanotube (Like a Tylenol capsule). A charged particle sits inside, and determines a value based on which half of the bucky-capsule it sits. According to the poster on the wall, the RAM will use no power to store information, only power to read and change data.
I tried very hard to find a URL, for this, but the closest I can do is: http://www.cse.msu.edu
It is the URL for the department where the poster is hanging on the wall.
It'd be nice for some space gasses to contain these since they would be nearly impossible to mass produce. Does anyone have any other ideas for resources that might be gained from the gas?
Just thought I'd pass along some interesting information.... The buckyball (or buckminsterfullerene) is technically termed isocahedral C60. It's a molecule made up of 60 carbon atoms arranged to form a sphere consisting of 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons. It was discovered by Richard Smalley and Harry Kroto, and named after Buckminster Fuller for his work on the geodesic dome, which it resembles. Furthermore, the buckyball is an insolator, but can be "doped" to make what is called a dopyball. Scientists crack open the ball with lasers, add other elements (potassium, rubidium, thallium, etc...), and reseal the ball. This is VERY similar to how silicon wafers are doped. These dopyballs are superconductors, but they don't follow most of the traditional rules (i.e., temperature and energy relations, etc). Perhaps superstrong, supercheap (you can make them at home...sort of) computer components can be made from them... think of the possibilities!
"`Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.'" -Douglas Adams, THHGTTG
Most helium around comes from fusing hydrogen in stars, and ends up as Helium 4. 'Stardust' as Joni Mitchell would have it. Helium 3 on the other hand, has been lurking around since the big bang. Like, 'cosmic', man.
Yahoo (and the Slashdot story) has it wrong in that the helium is extraterristial NOT necessarily from outside the solar system. He3 is in fact found in the solar wind: the crust of the moon, for example, is thought to enriched in He3 from the solar wind.
He3 does exist on earth (and in the rest of the Solar System for that matter). What is different is the ratio of He4 to He3 on Earth and in most of the rest of the solar system. What the article should say is that
1) Helium is trapped inside Bucky-balls found in asteriod impact sites and 2) The He4 to He3 ratio is the same as the ratio in the rest of the solar system and is not the same as that on earth.
This implies that 1) Buckyballs formed in space 2) They can trap gases in them and 3) They can survive extremely violent impact.
Slashdot - please, please, please check the original sources for stories.