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Buckyballs Kill Fish
An anonymous reader writes "The Washington Post (free registration, not too invasive) has a disturbing article on a new study of the environmental dangers of nanotech. Buckyballs caused "severe" brain damage in largemouth bass when added to their aquariums in concentrations of 0.5 ppm, a concentration level on par with common US pollutants. They also caused die-offs of Daphnia, waterfleas that are a crucial part of the ocean food chain. "The new findings are somewhat surprising because many scientists had predicted that buckyballs would not linger in water but would quickly form clumps and sink." The findings have yet to be peer-reviewed."
A buckyball is a carbon molecule that has 60 atoms in it and is shaped like a soccer ball. Google for Buckminster Fuller for more information.
AND NO, it's NOTHING DIRTY!!!!! (for once)
Buckyball is a colloquial term for the Buckminster-Fullerene, a molecule of 60 carbon atoms in the shape of a soccer ball. It was names after Buckminster-Fuller, an architect of domes with a similar structure.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
"Any of various cagelike, hollow molecules composed of hexagonal and pentagonal groups of atoms, and especially those formed from carbon, that constitute the third form of carbon after diamond and graphite." dictionary.
In the dozen years since their discovery in 1985, the soccer-ball-shaped molecules of 60 or more carbon atoms now known as fullerenes have displayed a dazzling variety of tricks. Although real-world applications are still a way off, researchers have coaxed these "buckyballs" to become superconductors at low temperatures, emit light and carbon ion beams, and form many other compounds with different properties.
120 chars of filth!
Nope - H202 and Cl are both oxidising agents, and as such both "steal" electrons. If Buckyballs steal electrons then they too are oxidising agents. Remember the handy little mnemonic OIL RIG: Oxidation Involves Loss, Reduction Involves Gain.
You're absolutely right.
Just as a sidenote, for anyone who doesn't know the significance of the Daphnia dying,
it basically means buckyballs are toxic (Daphnia are used for toxicity testing...)
Am I just stating the obvious? Well, you never know.
OP comes from New Scientist, picked up by the Washington Post.
Check it out w/o registering:http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99