Pencil 'Lead' Mightier than Diamonds? 95
GuardianBob420 writes "Space Daily is reporting that a team of researchers has used a combination of extreme pressure and irradiation to alter the molecular structure of graphite -- resulting in a previously unobserved super-hard form of the stuff.
From the article: 'The graphite that resulted from our experiment was so hard that when we released the pressure we saw that it had actually cracked the diamond anvil.'"
Yet another substance... (Score:5, Insightful)
I tell ya, there's a revolution in materials engineering happening. There are so many substances being discovered or created that have radical properties these days. Sooner or later one of them will be mass-produced cheaply and efficiently and we will have space elevators and super-powerful batteries and all kinds of other cool stuff.
You know, it's a good thing Wile E. Coyote never got a hold of a diamond anvil.
Re:Yet another substance... (Score:1, Insightful)
The DeBeers cartel drove ACME out of the diamond market.