Can you explain Q-carbon in simple terms? Is it as revolutionary as it first appears? [Details]?

I had never heard of that until your posting. It sounds interesting, but the article suggests that this is just at the most early stages of understanding.

The key will be – can these Q-carbon molecules be ‘harnessed’ in such a way to make them viable as a commercial technology? Can they be manufactured at a competitive price? And so on.

But looks like interesting stuff.

It sounds like they have found a new “phase” of Carbon. Water has three phases; Gas (Steam), Liquid and Solid (Ice). The Q-carbon is a new phase or structure of Carbon, it is the way the molecules stack together. Ice in water is stacked together different from when it is a liquid.

I’ve heard very little about Q-Carbon, mostly from my friend who is more into this sort of thing than I am, but I kind of got lost by his nitpicking over the definition of “phase”. Still, it wasn’t so much Q-carbon itself that interested him so much as what can be done with the methods used to control the crystalline structure of Carbon and the fact that those methods are done at one atmosphere and room temperature.

Then again, I haven’t seen anything on it more than about two days old :/