Feb 6, 2012

10 out of 10 for boron’s coordinated effort

Posted in Science at 3:19 pm by David Bradley -- Click to comment  

A team in the US has created a boron compound that has the highest coordination number of any planar species, squeezing 10 spoke-like bonds from a central metal hub to 10 boron atoms equally spaced around a nanoscopic wheel.

I asked theoretical chemist Pekka Pyykkö of the University of Helsinki, Finland, for his thoughts on the work:

“This combined experimental and theoretical discovery is in my opinion worth of any coverage you can give it. The new …

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Jan 31, 2012

Layers of graphene, water and helium

Posted in Science at 11:30 am by David Bradley -- Click to comment  

Graphene is perhaps the thinnest material known. Essentially it is a single, isolated layer of the carbon allotrope graphite. In SpectroscopyNOW this week I discuss new research into how a single layer of graphene is transparent to water molecules in the sense that the water can “see” whatever is underneath without the graphene influence. More details on that and potential applications over on SN, but it was the coincidence of a paper by Geim …

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Post mortem breast implants

Posted in Science at 5:29 am by David Bradley -- Click to comment  

When you leave your body to medical science you might imagine some marvellous discovery among your organs and tissues that leads researchers to the wondrous discovery of a universal anticancer drug or something equally stupendous. In reality, it can be a much more mundane, especially for any women donating their mortal coil.

Researchers at Emory University have been testing two techniques for implanting silicone prosthetic breast implants into cadavers. Obviously, the implications of their work will …

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