Allotropes of carbon

Diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring material on Earth, but a supercomputer just modeled stuff that’s even harder. Called a ‘super-diamond,’ the theoretical material could exist beyond our planet—and maybe, one day, be created here on Earth.Do We Have to Send Humans to Mars for Exploration?Like normal diamonds, super-diamonds are made from carbon atoms. This specific phase of carbon, composed of eight atoms, should be stable at ambient conditions. In other words, it could exist in an Earth laboratory.The specific…

Photo: Christopher Furlong (Getty Images)The Biden administration’s plans to boost manufacturing ofelectric vehicles may face a big bump in the road—and that bump is made of graphite. Both E&E News and Marketplace reported this week on how the coming electric vehicle revolution will supercharge the demand for the mineral.Graphite is a crucial component of electric vehicle batteries, used to make the anode—the part of the battery that releases electrons. When compared with other minerals used to make other parts of…