Carbon, one of the most common elements in the universe, is found in many forms thanks to its willingness to combine with other atoms. As you might remember from high school science, the scientific term for this willingness is “valence.” I prefer “willingness” because it allows me to imagine carbon holding hands with other atoms.
All this microscopic hand-holding leads to carbon’s many allotropes – diamond, graphene, graphite, lonsdaleite – all of which have very different and very cool looking molecular arrangements.
One of the coolest is Buckminsterfullerene, and no, I’m not making that name up.
It takes its name from its resemblance to geodesic domes, popularized by mid-century modernist architect Buckminster Fuller. Although first observed in a lab, Buckminsterfullerene is found in nature, but very rarely: in stars, in interstellar space, in the area around lightning strikes. The molecules also bear an uncanny resemblance to soccer balls, and are therefore sometimes known by the adorable name “buckyballs.”
I repeat: I am not making this up. I feel compelled to repeat this because it’s about to get weirder.
The discovery was interesting, but few applications were immediately apparent. Commenting on the compound, a member of the British House of Lords said that it “does nothing in particular, and does it very well.” But in 2015, some American scientists found a potential application by doing what Americans love to do: blowing stuff up.
Specifically, they took some buckyballs and got them to hold hands with some nitrous oxide molecules. The result was microscopic explosions that, they hypothesized, are small enough but powerful enough to perhaps destroy cancerous cells without damaging surrounding cells.
Searching this stuff up brings many excited articles from 2015, but little else within the last eight years, so it seems as if the science of nano-explosions hasn’t made much progress. Which is too bad.
In the meantime, let’s enjoy this explosion-themed song by the lead singer of My Morning Jacket.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. Like buckyballs, Jim James has an interesting name. I mean…Jim is short for James, so it’s pretty much James James, right? (Okay, his real name is James Edward Olliges Jr. But that’s still a pretty cool name.)
2. Like nano-explosions, it’s modestly sized at just 2 minutes.
3. The lead guitar with its friendly, sweet, almost cute melody; if atoms could hold hands, they would do it while listening to this song.
Recommended listening activity:
Imagining tiny fireworks going off in the palm of your hand.