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Discovered: High-Temperature Non-Metal Magnet
Wonko42 writes: "Russian scientists who were trying to produce high-temperature superconductors accidentally created the first non-metallic magnet that is magnetic at room temperature (and up to 200 degrees Celsius). Previously, non-metallic magnets tended to lose their magnetism at -255 degrees Celsius. The magnet was created by superheating and pressurizing buckyballs to join them together as a sheet. The technology is ideal for use in magnetic storage devices, and could also be used in chips. The material is also photo-sensitive, which means it could be used as an optical storage medium as well. Yay for buckyballs!"
Here's predicting the (ever so slightly arrogant) posts containing all the reasons why this was *so* much easier to do outside the US, which is why it hasn't been done there...
(Note: see past Slashdot's re. large network in Europe and pretty much any other achievement not based in the US)
Buckyballs are your friend.
They can fight many different types of nerve damage, they may help treating cancer, they can be superconductors at high temperature (now imagine a bewolf cluster of these!), and lots more.
From The R. Buckminster Fuller FAQ:
The exciting part of the discovery of C60 molecules is that they are only the third naturally occurring form of carbon to be found (graphite and diamond of course being the first two). C60 was first isolated from graphite (I think) in 1985.
As Paul Houle writes, C60 is formed in the shape of a geodesic sphere (like the panels of a soccer ball), hence the name ``buckminsterfullerene'' or ``buckyballs'' for short. Each carbon has three sp2 hybrid orbitals and the fourth electron of each carbon resides in a delocalized pi orbital that ranges over the entire ball (like benzene).
The physical appearance of C60 is very much similar to graphite, as are some of its physical properties. C60, unlike graphite, can be dissolved in benzene to form a translucent amber solution.
Other developments of buckyballs:
1) Radicalization - Besides just the pure C60 form, researchers at Rice have added hydrogen molecules to the carbon junctures to form molecules such as C60H36. Also, work is progressing on making C60 radical groupings (similar to benzene -> phenol).
2) Property measurement - Although many of the properties of C60 are known, most of the properties of its compounds are still hazy.
3) Higher molecules - Other stable forms with greater numbers of carbons have been isolated as well, including C70, C72, and a couple of others I can't remember. All of these have geodesic shapes as classified by Buckminster Fuller and look like lopsided versions of the normal C60 molecule.
4) Ionization - One can trap metallic ions such as Fe++ and Mg++ in the cage of the C60 to make the molecule act as a very large ion.
5) Superconductivity - As far as I know, the 18K Tc for C60 is the correct figure. This of course is much lower than high-temperature superconductors, but this fact may be used in some way at a later date.
Buckminsterfullerene (C60) is becoming ever easier to get in quantity and shows many interesting optical properties. It stops light -- the brighter the light the more effectively it stops it. Nano and pico-second laser pulses are effectively and instantly opaqued by small quantities of C60. A helmet visor treated with fullerene will instantly block an incoming laser beam -- the stronger the ray, the faster the face glass turns dark (cooler than those ``photosensitive'' sunglasses) (Patterson AFB in Ohio is studying such applications). Many other optical properties of the fullerenes are under study.
However, C60 remains forty times more expensive than gold. As Smalley put it ``it's the yield, stupid'' -- i.e. the central issue facing fullerene researchers, in Smalley's opinion, is how to get more of it. The Smalley team approach of using parabolic mirrors to sun-generate fullerenes (to produce ``sunnyballs'') appears to be a potentially promising approach. Concentrated sunlight has less of the damaging frequencies in high-powered lasers that apparently to inhibit fullerene formation from vaporized carbon).
Fullerene is quite reactive and can be used as a building block in other structures. In some crystal formations, doped with potassium for example, it conducts electricity with no resistance (is a superconductor).