Slashdot Mirror
Chemists Make Olympic Rings On a Molecular Scale
ananyo writes "Chemists in the UK have made a five-ring polyaromatic hydrocarbon and dubbed it 'olympicene'. The molecule is just a couple of nanometers wide and can be regarded as a little fragment of graphene. Strictly speaking, of course, the molecule might constitute an 'unofficial use' of the motif and land the scientists in court for copyright infringement."
Finally, an Olympics logo that accurately represents how little I care about the Olympics. They used to be meaningful, but they've devolved into just another international political dog and pony show.
The Summer Event Police will be arresting them and locking them in the Twenty Twelve containment area under Stratford.
All worship our Penta-ringed overlords.
Aren't the rings a trademark, not a copyright? Trademarks must be defended, otherwise the owner may lose the right to exclusive use of the trademark.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
now can they make a microscopic torch and a nano bot to carry it?
~theCzar
Does anyone have any good anecdotes or examples of when the transformative work clause worked?
the olympic rings are interconnected, and coloured.
this is just 5 (admittedly very small) circles pressed up against each other... blurry ones at that.
Trademark infringement. Trademark.
"To any truly impartial person, it would be obvious that I am right."
As I understand it, countries that have hosted the Olympic Games have to treat the rings and other IOC symbols as hardcoded famous trademarks, with sui generis restrictions that parallel the dilution restrictions on famous trademarks.
This is probably a useful discovery in some way but I fail to understand how.
I read TFA and it says it "might" have some useful optical properties. So they were just going for something that can make into the "nerd news"? Any chemists here to enlighten us?
The first thing I thought as soon as I read the first sentence was that the Olympic authorities would be all over them. The second was seeing that the submitter had also thought the same thing.
Just another indication of how badly the Olympics have been corrupted--and how they in turn corrupt the IP laws of host countries like a cancer.
interlock, instead of sharing edges.
The chief chemist sniffed it to get high, but got brain cancer instead.
Well it's OK I suppose, but the rings in the olympiadane molecule are properly linked, and that was synthesized already back in 1994.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympiadane
... And interlocking. Not to mention the colours. If your trademark has a) 5 b) circular rings c) interlocking in d) 5 different colours, I find it hard to believe that something that only matches with the condition a) really breaks the trademark.
Rather apt i'd say considering so many of the athletes are chemistry buffs themselves. I care not a jot.
That's why they used hexagons instead of perfect circles.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
first they have to find the offending molecule
6 ring carbon is too constrained to link within each other, so pick some other ring structures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterocyclic_compound
or better yet, a different ring structure for each color (yellow would be cyclo-octasulfur, pyridine for green, etc.)
then build them interlocking
to actually formulate this would win the team a nobel prize, so complex would it be
oh... a nobel, not an olympics gold
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Dudes!! TRADEMARK infringement, not copyright.
This unauthorised work is a violation of the Olympic Symbol etc. (Protection) Act 1995, London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 and other criminal acts. (It is also trivial work based on Dietrich-Buchecker, Sauvage & Kern, 1984.)
I'm gonna guess these are the same guys who made the ring for Mr. Facebook's wife.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I think the IOC has strayed way too far from the original principles of the olympic games and it might be time to reboot the games.
We all have a responsibility to "vote" with our wallets and eyes by refusing to buy anything related to the olympics and to not watch the games. Stop the madness and save the original spirit of the games. The games were supposed to be about amateur sport, not money.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Good luck with that.
Myself, I haven't watched the games in decades nor have I bought anything "Olympic". You're only starting now?
FC Closer
stealing intellectual property is NOT ok. why is Obama allowing the terrorists to win?
No, you can count on it.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
In our next project we will create the Audi logo.
To be honest, the photo of it reminds me more of a very common arrangment in which 5 spherical objects can be laid out. There's almost nothing about it that reminds me of the olympic rings. The colors aren't there, the rings don't overlap, and the circles look more like hexagons.
Basically, it just looks like some molecule to me...
Thank you for your ambitious start. Please do us all a favour and shrink the rest of the Olympics down to that size too!
Sincerely,
The citizens of the host contries paying the massive public debt for the private advertising spectacle every 2 years.
Stupidity is its own reward.
"Strictly speaking, of-course, the molecule might constitute an 'unofficial use' of the motif and land the scientists in court for copyright infringement."
They may end up in court for TRADEMARK infringement, but not copyright infringement.
A molecule like this has already been made by Frasier Stoddart in 1994 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympiadane). The 1994 version, unlike the olympicene synthesized here, actually has interlocking rings versus rings that are simply juxtaposed.
I demand drone strikes on the laboratory!
Another example of overblown novelty... AFM is nothing new, and "olympicene" is also nothing new.. it's been made before... at least as early as 1965.. and possibly earlier still (haven't looked deeply in the scifinder databases).
Here's a literature citation (something the parent article sorely lacks) with proof. You know.. the stuff science is supposedly made of ?
http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/1965/JR/jr9650005920
The games were supposed to be about amateur sport, not money.
Well, that was fine in pre First World War Europe when only gentlemen sportsmen competed (in between running the Empire and big game hunting), but it's a bit irrelevant nowadays.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I demand drone strikes on the laboratory!
Hold on, the IOC has its own military now? Maybe that means here in the UK we won't have to provide them with free police and military cover.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Boy am I glad I don't live in London any more.
It's going to be a fucking nightmare. If I still had a house there, I'd burn it down now, collect the insurance and piss off abroad for a couple of months.
When it has eventually struggled back to life from the smoking ruins left by rioting crazed crowds driven to madness by blocked roads and stationary trains, there will probably be some good property bargains to be had.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
It's the Westinghouse logo.
And we'd have to call that compound "Quattrene" eh?
(proud owner of a classic Audi A4 Quattro)
No, obviously they would be provided and paid for by the UK as a result of contractual provisions in London hosting agreement. Don't tell me there's no Drone Strike Clause. How could the IOC overlook that?