About This Photo

A look between the two anvils of a Paris-Edinburgh press used in John Badding’s lab to synthesize carbon nanothreads.

The press can apply up to 20 gigapascals—about 200,000 times atmospheric pressure—to a sample of benzene encapsulated in a metal gasket, visible at the center of the image. This pressure causes the atoms and bonds in the molecules of benzene to rearrange and coalesce into long, one-dimensional threads with incredible properties. Read more in the Shape of – A Thread! Form of – A Diamond!

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