Pencil 'Lead' Mightier than Diamonds?

GuardianBob420 writes "Space Daily is reporting that a team of researchers has used a combination of extreme pressure and irradiation to alter the molecular structure of graphite -- resulting in a previously unobserved super-hard form of the stuff. From the article: 'The graphite that resulted from our experiment was so hard that when we released the pressure we saw that it had actually cracked the diamond anvil.'"

Comments

Re:Lasts longer than diamonds?

[avalys]

Graphite is a form of carbon, as are diamonds. They're essentially the same material, just in different molecular arrangements.