Chemists Synthesize "Impossible" Molecule

neilest writes "Organic chemistry textbooks will need to be revised to recognize a chemical species that chemists have discovered at Northwestern University. The species -- pentamethylcyclopentadienyl cation -- was thought not to exist for long because theory said it was unstable. The full story can be found at this suntimes article"

Comments

So release it!

[MarkusQ]

"I've said this molecule is unstable and doesn't exist dozens of times in organic chemistry class, but as it turns out, the molecule had different ideas," Northwestern chemistry professor Joseph Lambert said.

Q: You've been calling something unstable for a while, but it turns out it was stable. What do you do?

A: Increment the version number and release it!

-- MarkusQ