Buckyballs

The world of atoms and molecules is tricky to study, not just because it’s so small but because events occur so quickly at that scale. Now, researchers have captured slow motion video of the movements of single molecules at 1,600 frames per second.

Astronomers have detected complex carbon molecules – previously only thought to be made in a lab setting – in interstellar space. Now scientists have created them under space-like conditions, hinting at how they can naturally form between the stars.

Buckyballs (or Buckminsterfullerene), the soccer ball-like structures of 60 carbon atoms, have a new playmate. Previously only theorized, researchers from Brown University in the US and Shanxi and Tsinghua Universities in China have been the first to experimentally observe a boron "buckyball."

Scientists have discovered a new hybrid substance that is able to dent diamonds.

A French study has found that including buckyballs in a rat's diet can result in greatly increased lifespan.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has identified the signature of graphene in two small galaxies outside our own.