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Last Updated on Monday, 19 August 2019 16:13

Having Optimism In A Meaningless Universe 

LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS

Theoretical Physicist and Science Educator

Director, Arizona State University Origins Project

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Botany

TALKING TREES

18-atom ‘cyclocarbon’ 

Elusive 18-atom ‘cyclocarbon’ could be a step towards molecule-scale transistor L

ong after most chemists had given up trying, a team of researchers has synthesized the first ring-shaped molecule of pure carbon — a circle of 18 atoms.

The chemists started with a triangular molecule of carbon and oxygen, which they manipulated with electric currents to create the carbon-18 ring. Initial studies of the properties of the molecule, called a cyclocarbon, suggest that it acts as a semiconductor, which could make similar straight carbon chains useful as molecular-scale electronic components.

It is an “absolutely stunning work” that opens up a new field of investigation, says Yoshito Tobe, a chemist at Osaka University in Japan. “Many scientists, including myself, have tried to capture cyclocarbons and determine their molecular structures, but in vain,” Tobe says. The results appear in Science1 on 15 August.