It isn’t as scary as Kurt Vonnegut’s imaginary ice-9, a form of solid water stable at ambient temperatures, but it’s just as wierd. According the the recent edition of Nature Science Updates, a fifth form of carbon has been created. Unlike the known forms – graphite, diamond, buckminsterfullerenes, and nanotubes – the new form is described as a nanofoam. The really interesting thing is that it’s magnetic.
I was thinking of Ice-9 when I named the bio-active nanomachines (in Acts of the Apostles) “Feynman Nine”. Also, it’s odd that the magnetism wears off over a short amount of time. Why is that? Does the structure change?
In other http://www.eurekalert.org/p… news it has been recently reported that buckyballs cause brain damage in fish. Ooops!