Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Molecules Spontaneously Form Honycomb

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the just-a-push-in-the-right-direction dept.

Science Daily is reporting that University of California Researchers have discovered a new process in which molecules assemble into complex patterns without any outside guidance. From the article: "Spreading anthraquinone, a common and inexpensive chemical, on to a flat copper surface, Greg Pawin, a chemistry graduate student working in the laboratory of Ludwig Bartels, associate professor of chemistry, observed the spontaneous formation of a two-dimensional honeycomb network comprised of anthraquinone molecules."

5 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. "Honycomb?" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Typoes in the summary are common enough, but in the title ... and "Honycomb?"

  2. Re:crystals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Leave some sodium and chlorine together and let the rest of the solution evaporate and you will spot a cubical arrangement of molecules. This concept is new?

    Yes, it is. The nifty part is the SIZE of the arrangement. If you bothered to read the article, you would notice that the hexagon pattern is in a very unusual size range.

  3. Honycomb? by linguae · · Score: 1, Informative

    Honycomb? Honycomb? Honycomb? Me want honycomb? I almost fell out of my chair laughing. Last time I checked, it is honeycomb, with an e.

  4. importance? by mapkinase · · Score: 3, Informative

    I am failing to grasp the importance of this. Molecules form regular structures? This have been observed for many types of molecules starting from atoms (metals), small molecules (have you heard of ice) and things as huge as ribosomes (itself 100nm).
    How's this thing is unqiue? In what aspect?

    The answer to this question is probably, huge pores compared to the size of the monomer, but I am still not impressed.

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  5. For those who don't get it: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    (including me, until I did a quick Google search)

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=yDZK6H3d5bk