Word: carbonation
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Skeptical eyebrows were raised in 1985 when three chemists reported that they had stumbled onto a new form of molecular carbon that they believed, but could not prove, had the shape of a soccer ball. Nobody is skeptical anymore. Not only has their theory been confirmed, but it has blossomed into a thriving branch of research. And last week that trio of chemists--Harold Kroto from Britain's University of Sussex, and Robert Curl and Richard Smalley from Rice University in Houston--were rewarded for their work with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry...
...have long speculated that if there are other warm, wet and cozy planets like ours, they might harbor carbon-based life like ours. Unfortunately, the vast majority of places out there are depressingly and forbiddingly unearthlike. We figured that life there, if at all possible, would probably come in highly exotic forms based on completely different chemistries from ours (silicon, for example). And yet here in front of our noses are deep-sea, carbon-based microbes able to live in hellish, almost Venus-like conditions. If here, why not out there...
...underwater structures at the center of this concern are, in fact, built by live animals. Corals--fingertip- to hand-size creatures that stick together to form large colonies--use the carbon and calcium in seawater to build their hard, exterior skeletons. Over time, the stony material accumulates, giving colonies of coral their signature shapes. Some corals, for example, form big round heads that resemble a giant cauliflower, while others assume elongate shapes reminiscent of skyscrapers. As impressive as cities, mature reefs may be thousands of years old, extend for hundreds of miles and shelter thousands upon thousands of species--making...
...program at Argonne National Laboratory, who has done extensive work with alternative-fuel vehicles, doesn't think the Rosens have addressed the safety problems inherent in flywheels. A wheel operating at such a high velocity can explode if knocked off-line--say by hitting a pothole--turning high-tech carbon fibers into shrapnel. "In the final analysis, the design needs a lot of work on housing and containment. I don't think he has the ultimate power train. No disrespect intended. This is simply an observation that these guys with very limited funds are trying to do what Detroit...
Anna, meanwhile, was less in-your-face; she was committed and determined, but didn't fidget nearly as much. I wouldn't call them opposites, but I surely wouldn't call them carbon copies...