A 10-year-old at a Montessori school in Kansas City, Missouri has now been published in a leading theoretical chemistry journal. Why? Well, playing with molecule-building toys in a lesson, she happened to create one that no one had thought up before, one that could potentially “store energy, create a large explosion, or do something in between” (if it can be synthesized by a chemist).
Of course, the young girl, Clara Lazen, knew exactly what she was up to. She said that, in her design, the pieces “fit more together and they look better.”… A little more scientifically, she did realize that “all the holes have to be filled in for it to be stable.”
While Clara seems more intent on selling her discovery to the military for lots of money, I’m hoping that if it can ever actually be synthesized and used, it will be used in the energy storage field for broader, more peaceful use. Of course, it’s got a long way to go to get to any practical stage, but you have to start somewhere!
Anyway, here’s a video on this all:
As stated above, Clara got quite a helping hand in the discovery by her teacher Kenneth Boehr and Humboldt State University chemistry professor Robert Zoellner, one of Boehr’s college buddies. Zoellner is actually the lead author on the paper, published in Computational and Theoretical Chemistry in January, since he did the majority of the work analyzing the molecule (“tetranitratoxycarbon”) and writing up the paper, naturally. However, Clara and Boehr were actually coauthors on the paper, and that is no small accomplishment (especially at the age of 10!).
Have more info on this story? Drop us a note in the comments!
h/t Grist
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Former Tesla Battery Expert Leading Lyten Into New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Era — Podcast:
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
