Diamond will always be a girl’s best friend, but it may soon lose favour with industrial drillers. The gemstone lost its title of the “world’s hardest material” to man-made nanomaterials some time ago. Now a rare natural substance looks likely to leave them all far behind – at 58% harder than diamond. Zicheng Pan at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and colleagues simulated how atoms in two substances believed to have promise as very hard materials would respond to the stress of a finely tipped probe pushing down on them.
Hey, check out all the research scientist jobs. Post your resume today!
