Diamond in the rough.It takes a scanning tunneling microscope scanning tunneling microscope, device for studying and imaging individual atoms on the surfaces of materials. The instrument was invented in the early 1980s by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, who were awarded the 1986 Nobel prize in physics for their work. to view this crystal made of billions of [10.sup.-21]-carat diamondlike molecules. These newly discovered, naturally occurring molecules are called cyclohexamantane. For decades, researchers have synthesized syn·the·sized adj. 1. Relating to or being an instrument whose sound is modified or augmented by a synthesizer. 2. Relating to or being compositions or a composition performed on synthesizers or synthesized instruments. so-called diamondoids with simpler molecular structures and have even used one of these, adamantane, to make medicines. Simple diamondoids are also found in petroleum, where they can form well-clogging sediments. While studying this problem several years ago, Jeremy E.P. Dahl dahl n. 1. See pigeon pea. 2. or dal A thick creamy East Indian stew made with lentils or other legumes, onions, and various spices. , a geologist at Stanford University Stanford University, at Stanford, Calif.; coeducational; chartered 1885, opened 1891 as Leland Stanford Junior Univ. (still the legal name). The original campus was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. David Starr Jordan was its first president. and ChevronTexaco in Richmond, Calif., and his colleagues speculated that oil might contain more-complex diamondoids. They were right. They recently found several complex diamondoids in oil, and in the May 9 Angewandte Chemie International Edition, they describe the isolation and characterization of cyclohexamantane. |
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