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This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Sophie Bushwick. Got a minute?
The carbon molecule1 known as a buckyball, a member of the fullerene family, can act as a cage for a variety of other chemicals. And now researchers have used one to trap a single molecule of water. The work appears in the journal Science. Placing a molecule that's essential to life within a spherically2 symmetrical one could let researchers learn more about each.
Water molecules3 stick together, because they carry a slight charge on each end. As the positive pole of one H2O attracts the negative pole of another, the molecules cling tightly together. You can't separate a single water molecule from its fellows with a tiny pair of tweezers4, so isolating5 it in a carbon cage may reveal new secrets about the intrinsic nature of a lone6 H2O.
What about the cage itself? Researchers already know that buckyballs refuse to dissolve in water, sometimes even floating like miniature beach balls. But what happens when the water is within? Putting polar molecules inside buckyballs may influence the chemical behavior of their outsides, and create new molecules with unique properties. Not to mention making our understanding even…fuller.
Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Sophie Bushwick.
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1 molecule | |
n.分子,克分子 | |
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2 spherically | |
球状地,球地 | |
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3 molecules | |
分子( molecule的名词复数 ) | |
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4 tweezers | |
n.镊子 | |
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5 isolating | |
adj.孤立的,绝缘的v.使隔离( isolate的现在分词 );将…剔出(以便看清和单独处理);使(某物质、细胞等)分离;使离析 | |
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6 lone | |
adj.孤寂的,单独的;唯一的 | |
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