Cloumn-with-plate-type snowflake at 40x magnification by Miss. Yangping Wang
The Aurora borealis from Yellowknife, Canada, by Bill Braden/The Canadian Press
Smallest Five Ringed Structure Imaged
Born from a doodle in a planning meeting this project was born, and it produced this amazing image. Olympicene radical was the molecule of choice, with its five ringed structure. Using atomic force microscopy the team managed to image the single molecule in surprising clarity. The image above is in false colour and the molecule is less than 100,000 times thinner than a human hair.
(Image credit: IBM Research, Zurich, University of Warwick, Royal Society of Chemistry)
Tetrafluoroethylene, Polytetrafluoroethylene, and Teflon (C2F4)
Tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) is the simplest alkene fluorocarbon. It is colourless, odorless and a gas at room temperature. It is unstable, tending towards decomposition to C and CF4, it also forms explosive peroxides in contact with air.
TFE can be polymerized to form polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), also known as Teflon. In the polymerization of TFE, the double bond between the carbons is broken thus leaving each carbon to readily bond to another atom. PTFE is hydrophobic which in conjunction with multiple other properties makes it highly useful in coatings for non-stick pans.
(Images via wikimedia, benbest.com, and 3dchem.com)
Plutonium Signature Spotted
The 50 year old search for the signature of plutonium has been ended. Using super-cooled plutonium oxide and magnetic resonance spectroscopy they were able to stabilize magnetic interference and pick out of the signature. At 4 kelvin magnetic interference was minimal, and the signal came in at near 5.8 Tesla.
(Image via wikimedia)
